“The administrator of the Small Business Administration said the agency is heavily investing in equity initiatives as part of its fiscal year 2023 budget request, while aiming to ensure that funding translates to real opportunities for federal contractors in need of support.
SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman told lawmakers the agency’s budget request includes increased funding for programs offering resources and opportunities to women-owned businesses and contractors from traditionally underserved communities, including small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), as part of an effort to address what she described as a 40% decline of small business contractors working with the federal government over the past decade…”
“’We believe equity is a real key to ensuring that we can continue to have a flow of contractors – small business contractors – to do business with the federal government,’ she added.
The SBA’s equity action plans indicate the agency aims to increase direct access to support and resources within underserved communities at over 280 small business development centers nationwide by allocating nearly 30% of its development center program funding to minority-serving institutions. The agency is also working towards achieving a governmentwide SDB contracting goal of 15% by fiscal year 2025, and increased its goal for fiscal year 2022 to 11%…”
“Guzman also told the House Small Business Committee this week that the SBA’s Community Navigators pilot program—an American Rescue Plan initiative providing $100 million in funding to organizations in underrepresented and underserved groups – has enabled the agency to ‘build bridges to underserved communities across the country so that they can better access the resources of the federal government.’…” Read the full article here.
Source: SBA looks to promote disadvantage businesses with 2023 budget request – By Chris Riotta, May 2, 2022. FCW.
