It’s called the 8(a) program. Its a Small Business Administration program that gives advantages in the award of government to business owned by woman and minorities. And, the SBA is looking to expand it.
The Small Business Administration is proposing changes aimed at increasing government contracting dollars going to women-owned small businesses.
In a proposed regulation, SBA said it will develop a program to achieve a goal of 5 percent of all federal prime contract dollars being spent with women-owned small businesses. That goal was set by legislation passed in 1994, and a measure in 2000 gave the small-business agency the authority to channel contracts toward businesses owned by women.
Now, SBA is proposing the Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Assistance program, which would be part of the agency’s Office of Government Contracting. The program would let contracting officers restrict competition for some contracts to eligible women-owned small businesses.
In other words, these businesses would be given an advantage that other companies would not, and would be able to bid on contracts closed to companies owned by men. The dirty little secret of the 8(a) program, though, is that, often, the female and minority ownership is, in reality, a sham utilized by otherwise ineligible businesses to gain access to contracting opportunities that would otherwise be denied them. Even when it is legitimate is still constitutes a government-approved program of blatant discrimination. Instead of expanding the 8(a) program, we ought to be eliminating it.
