House Small Business Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., last Tuesday (Apr. 16, 2013) stepped up pressure on agencies to comply with new rules requiring them to elevate their Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization offices as a means for giving more businesses a leg up in competing for contracts.
In letters to the Defense Department and 34 other agencies, Graves said a recent hearing revealed that too many are ignoring new amendments to the Small Business Act enacted in January with passage of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. “It has come to my attention that some agencies were either unaware of recent changes . . . or had not yet implemented the changes,” Graves wrote. The requirements include new priorities in the small and disadvantaged business offices’ work, prohibitions on the offices’ leaders from holding other positions, and improvements to the reporting relationship between small business specialists and the offices.
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