Small business: In brief

The rhetoric between congressional leaders and the Small Business Administration continues, with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) firing the latest shot.Kerry, ranking Democrat on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, accused SBA of closing the Office of Federal Contract Assistance for Veteran Business Owners and planning to close the Veteran's Advisory Committee in September.SBA told Washington Technology in May that it was not shuttering the office, but combining it with the Office of Veterans Business Development. An SBA spokesman also reportedly said the agency was not closing the advisory committee, but was following the statute that created it and specified that it would expire Sept. 30.The committee would then fold into the National Veterans Business Development Corp.Sigma Space Partners won a five-year, $14.4 million contract NASA to support the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.Sigma of Lanham, Md., will provide scientific programming and analysis, computer facility support, library and publication services, logistical, utility and program management.The company also will offer global climate modeling and Earth observations.Sigma is a member of SBA's 8(a) business development program.The Goddard Institute conducts atmospheric and climate modeling of the Earth and studies global warming.NCI Information Systems Inc. of Reston, Va., continues to earn its share of the Air Force's Network-Centric Solutions program, winning a contract worth up to $18.6 million over three years to deliver specialized computer systems to support the F-22 System Program Office.Netcents was created as a five-year, $9 billion, task order contract to provide the Air Force and other federal agencies with IT products and services. The contract was awarded to four large and four small-business prime contractors.