Ensuring Efficiency and Fairness in Federal Subcontracting Act would help small businesses, including women, minority, and veteran-owned small businesses, access federal subcontracting opportunities
Casey has long pushed for minority business development through federal subcontracting
Federal subcontractors support the government by offering specialized skills, providing diverse available goods and services, and creating jobs
Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced the Ensuring Efficiency and Fairness in Federal Subcontracting Act to support small business development through federal subcontracts. By serving as subcontractors, small businesses create jobs, provide specialized skills to projects, and diversify the available goods and services for government contracts. This legislation will address obstacles that prevent small businesses—particularly those that are minority, women and veteran-owned—from securing federal subcontracts.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. This bill will help to ensure that small businesses—especially women, minority, and veteran-owned businesses—can compete for federal contract opportunities on a level playing field,” said Senator Casey. “I have always fought to support Pennsylvania’s small businesses and I will keep working to make sure that the Nation can benefit from all they have to offer.
Federal subcontracting offers a unique pathway for the federal government to invest directly in small businesses. After hearing from Pennsylvania businesses owners that the process to secure these subcontracts is unclear, inefficient, and even unfair to some minority, women, and veteran-owned small businesses, Senator Casey introduced the Ensuring Efficiency and Fairness in Federal Subcontracting Act.
Small businesses face obstacles that prevent them from securing government subcontracts including unclear guidance on how subcontracts are awarded; lack of regulation to ensure contractors are giving all businesses the fair opportunity to subcontract; and limited opportunities to become aware of or exposed to subcontracting opportunities. This legislation would improve the federal subcontracting process for small businesses by making the process more transparent, penalizing contractors acting in bad faith, and increasing outreach events to spread awareness of federal subcontracting opportunities.
Nearly 46% of Pennsylvania’s workforce is employed by the over 1.1 million small businesses throughout the Commonwealth. Supporting these small businesses is critical to the Commonwealth’s economy.
Senator Casey has long fought to help small businesses through federal subcontracting. In 2010 Casey introduced legislation that would prevent contractors from making unfulfilled promises to deliver subcontracting work to women and minority-owned businesses. Senator Casey reintroduced the legislation in 2011, emphasizing the importance of small business development in the Commonwealth. Later that year, Senator Casey introduced legislation to ensure that minority and women-owned small businesses were awarded the federal subcontracts they were promised.
Read more about the Ensuring Efficiency and Fairness in Federal Subcontracting Act HERE
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