WASHINGTON (Globe Newswire) — Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced that the federal government exceeded its small business federal contracting goal, awarding 26.01 percent or $145.7 billion in federal contract dollars to small businesses, a $13 billion increase from the previous fiscal year.
“Despite the fact that it’s been an extremely challenging year for small businesses, the SBA is proud to announce that our nation’s entrepreneurs used their trademark ingenuity, grit, and determination to do a record amount of contracts — $145.7 billion — with the federal government,” said SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman. “Thanks to the support of countless dedicated government professionals, the federal government exceeded its small business contracting goal for FY20 with a $13 billion increase from the previous fiscal year.
“However, we know that there’s much more to do to ensure all of our small businesses can get contract-ready and have the opportunities they need to engage with the world’s largest customer,” Guzman added. “We’re committed to increasing these opportunities and lowering barriers to give our small businesses a chance to grow their revenues through contracting. Our goal this year, and every year, is to make sure that small businesses can be like the giants they are in our economy and to create conditions to guarantee their success.”
The federal government also added almost a million jobs to the American economy through the $145.7 billion in prime contract dollars and $82.8 billion in subcontracts awarded to small businesses. Overall, the federal government exceeded its goal of 23 percent in prime contract dollars and earned an “A” on this year’s government-wide Scorecard. Eight federal agencies earned an “A+” for their agencies’ achievements in small-business contracting.
At the same time, the Biden-Harris Administration recognizes there is much work to be done to advance equity in federal procurement. President Biden’s Day 1 Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities instructs agencies to ensure that federal contracting and procurement opportunities be made more readily available to all eligible vendors and to remove barriers faced by underserved individuals and communities. In his June 2021 speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma commemorating the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, President Biden announced a goal of increasing the share of contracts awarded to small, disadvantaged businesses by 50 percent over five years.
FY2020 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard:
The individual agency scorecards released today by the SBA, as well as a detailed explanation of the methodology, is available at SBA.gov. Highlights from the overall Federal Procurement Scorecard are:
- In FY20, the federal government exceeded the service-disabled veteran-owned small business and small disadvantaged business goals of 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
- Although dollar awards increased to new records from previous years in all small business categories, the federal government fell short of meeting the goals established by Congress for women-owned small businesses and HUBZone small businesses. The government spent over $27 billion with women-owned small businesses and over $13 billion with HUBZone businesses, figures that both exceeded the prior year’s spending by over $1 billion.
- The federal government also exceeded its subcontract goals for awards to small businesses and women-owned small businesses. In all, the government awarded almost $83 billion in subcontracts to all small businesses.
- Despite the overall increase in the value of small-business awards, the number of small businesses receiving prime contracts with the federal government decreased.
