How do youget legislation through a bitterly divided Congress? Here's one idea: Attach itto one of a few bills lawmakers have virtually no choice but to pass each year.

This iswhat the House and Senate small-business committees do.

Drawing ona successful strategy from the past coupleyears, members of the committees have pushed through several piecesof legislation intended to help small businesses — particularly smallgovernment contractors — by squeezing them into Congress's annual militaryspending bill, or National Defense Authorization Act. President Obama isexpected to sign the bill, including the small-businesses provisions, into lawsometime next week.

"Thelegislative process in Washington is such that people will attach some kind ofbill, even though it's totally unrelated, to a bill that they know will passevery year," Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), a member of the House Small BusinessCommittee, said during an event last week in the District. "Indeed, that's thisNational Defense Authorization Act."

UnderChairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.), the committee has spent much of the past few yearscrafting legislation designed tofunnel more government work to small businesses — an area in direneed of improvement, according to several federal investigations. LastDecember, the committee managed to attach to the NDAA a bill that holds agencyleaders accountable for their small-business contracting goals, and another thatdiscourages bundling multiple contracts together (which caters to largercontractors).

This pastyear, the government met its statutory goal of spending 23 percent of federalcontracting dollars at small companies — the first time officials have hit the targetsince 2005. Graves said the new NDAA "will help this accomplishment become aregular occurrence."

Here's alook at what made it into the defense bill and how smallbusinesses can benefit.

Contractingprogram extended to women-owned businesses

While thefederal government reached its overall small-business contracting goal thisyear, it again missed its 5 percent goal for small companies owned by women. Infact, in the two decades since the goals were put in place, officials havenever hit the women-owned business target — a source of frustration for manyfemale lawmakers.

However,that may change. The NDAA includes an expansion of what's known as thesole-source program, under which agencies can quickly and easily awardcontracts to certain small businesses owned by minorities, veterans orindividuals in underserved areas without going through the formal biddingprocess. Now, small women-ownedcompanies will be allowed to win contracts under that samebidding-free process.

"When itcomes to federal procurement, women-owned companies too often face an uphillbattle winning their fair share of contracts," Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.),who originally introduced legislation expanding the program to women-ownedcompanies, said in a statement. She noted that the change should result in"greater opportunity for female entrepreneurs and a fairer procurementprocess."

Added Sen.Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), head of the Senate Small Business andEntrepreneurship committee, who helped craft a similar piece of legislation inthe upper chamber: "It opens up a market opportunity of $4 billion in U.S.government contracts for women entrepreneurs."

Contractbidding process split in two

Undercurrent rules, many construction projects known as "design-bid" projects areawarded under a one-step bidding process, involving complex and sometimescostly proposals submitted to the government. Often, the cost of the completingand submitting a bid, without knowing whether the bid would even becompetitive, deters small companies from trying to compete for work andrepresents a barrier toentry for new firms.

Consequently,some departments have started experimenting with a two-step process, whichnarrows the field and allows businesses to cobble together less information(and sustain less costs) during the preliminary round. If they find out theyhaven't been competitive, they didn't waste nearly as much time and moneysubmitting the bid.

The NDAArequires federal departments to adopt this two-step process across the board,and only require small businesses to submit a full contract proposal if theyare among the five most competitive bidders.

"If thebid and proposal process can be streamlined to make it more efficient andcheaper for all involved, without sacrificing quality, we should do it," Gravessaid when the bill was first introduced last summer.

Heightenedtransparency around subcontracting, bundling

The NDAAincludes two provisions intended to shed more light on two of the government'ssmall-business contracting initiatives. The first concerns an obscurePentagon program that allows some large contractors to avoidsubmitting a small-business subcontracting plan each time they bid on a primecontract; instead, they're allowed to use a company-wide small-businesssubcontracting plan that applies to every proposal.

To viewfull Washington Post article, click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/covert-operation-in-defense-bill-congress-quietly-passes-small-business-legislation/2014/12/14/3bf4361e-8097-11e4-9f38-95a187e4c1f7_story.html