The number of small businesses receiving federal contracts continued a sharp and years-long decline in 2022 despite a record-breaking $159 billion awarded to small businesses throughout the year, according to a new report.
The increasing popularity of “best-in-class” contracts and other vehicles that consolidate contracting opportunities hampered small business participation in the federal marketplace last year, the government contracting market intelligence platform HigherGov said in a report published on Monday…
The report calls on Congress to further expand support and funding for programs like the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer, or SBIR/STTR, programs, which offer research grants to businesses with the goal of bringing new technologies to market. A proposed contract vehicle underway at the General Services Administration could bring more support by selling successful SBIR/STTR products governmentwide.
The report also calls on agencies to minimize contract bundling, expand small business outreach and improve the measurement of small business goals by incorporating diversity metrics into small business targets… Read the full article here.