Yesterday, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) and Rep. Pete Stauber’s (MN-08) bipartisan legislation, the Small Business Procurement and Utilization Reform (SPUR) Act, unanimously passed the House Small Business Committee. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is tasked with ensuring that small businesses are given a fair shot at competing for federal contracting dollars. Although the amount of federal contract dollars awarded to small businesses has reached record highs, the number of small businesses in the industrial base has declined dramatically. Data indicates the federal government is not retaining current small business contractors, and fewer small businesses are choosing to enter the federal market.

The SPUR Act would require the SBA to include the number of new small businesses entering the federal contracting market as part of their consideration of each federal agency’s performance meeting small business contracting goals.

“Even though more federal contracting dollars are making it to small businesses, fewer small businesses are deciding to take up federal contracts. For our local economies to thrive, it’s important that we level the playing field and ensure more Southwest Washington small businesses can benefit from these opportunities,” said Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez. “As more folks retire from the trades, the middle class will lose out if small businesses can’t clear the regulatory burdens of competing for contracts. I introduced this bipartisan legislation to help ensure our federal government is retaining and bringing in small business contractors – and today’s passage in the House Small Business Committee is another step toward getting this across the finish line.”

Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez’s Corrective Action Report Oversight and Accountability Act passed the House Small Business Committee last year to help ensure federal agencies meet their benchmarks for the percentage of contracting dollars reaching women-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, and small disadvantaged businesses.

Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez’s remarks to the House Small Business Committee in support of the SPUR Act are available here.

Full text of the legislation is available here.

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