Citing a shortage of accurate data on small business contracting, a House

panel last week approved an umbrella bill (H.R.

1481) aimed at forcing agencies to curb practices seen as freezing out

smaller bidders and requested a new Government Accountability Office study on

small business goals.

"We know that when small businesses compete for federal work, it creates

jobs, improves the quality of work, and saves taxpayers' money," said House

Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. "This bill is a

commonsense approach to make sure that Washington is working with Main Street –

not locking it out of the procurement process altogether."

Combining six separate bills, the package would restrict "bundling" of

services or goods previously provided under separate contracts to the detriment

of small business and curb use of so-called reverse

auctions, in which contractors bid electronically for contracts at

progressively lower prices.

The bill would require the Small Business Administration, which announced

last year that agencies for the first time met the goal of awarding 23

percent of contracts to small businesses, to factor in use of subcontractors in

their performance. The committee's analysis of contract data from fiscal

2011-2014 showed that the number of small business contracting actions fell by

almost 60 percent and the average size of a contract action increased 230 percent.

"Under the [SBA's] scorecard system, the federal government received an A

grade for fiscal 2013," Chabot said in a statement. "While an A grade and a

reasonable percentage of small business prime contracting dollars would seem to

indicate that a healthy percentage of dollars are being awarded to small

businesses, [data] show that the use of small businesses is declining even as

the percentage of dollars awarded to small businesses increases. Additionally,

it is worth noting that in obtaining its A, the federal government did not meet

half of its numerical goals."

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