Political Quotes

“I rise today, at the onset of Women's History Month, along with my colleagues Senators Gillibrand, Landrieu, Bennet, Shaheen, Mikulski, and Murkowski to introduce the Fairness in Women-Owned Small Business Contracting Act. The purpose of the bill is to remove inequities that exist in the women-owned small business contracting program, when compared to other socio-economic programs. As former Chair and now Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I have long championed women entrepreneurship and have urged both past and present Administrations to implement the woman-owned small business, WOSB, Federal contracting program, which was enacted into law 10 years ago. On March 4, 2010, the Small Business Administration, SBA, finally proposed a workable rule to implement the women's procurement program. I am pleased to report that today there is a functional WOSB contracting program, however, the program lacks the critical elements that the SBA's 8(a), historically underutilized business zones, and the service-disabled veteran-owned government contracting programs include. To remedy this, our bipartisan bill will help provide tools women need to compete fairly in the Federal contracting arena by allowing for receipt of non-competitive contracts, when circumstances allow.…”