Rep. Graves requests contract reforms in next NDAA
He added that the Armed Services Committee’s own Panel on Business Challenges and Small Business Committee’s legislation complement each other.
Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the Small Business Committee, said on April 17 he would like several small-business contracting reforms, including a proposal to boost the annual small-business contracting goal, in the new defense authorization bill.
He made the recommendation to the Armed Services Committee in a hearing in which several House members asked the committee to include its suggested language in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. The committee is expected to release its language for the bill May 7.
“Improving small business opportunities for federal contracts is a triple play,” Graves told the committee in testimony. Small companies win more contracts, which create jobs, he said. Companies also bring more competition and innovation to the market and the government saves money through this and the industrial base stays healthy, added Graves.
In March, Graves’ committee approved eight bills to reform contracting and help small companies in the federal marketplace.
He pointed out that the Armed Services Committee’s own Panel on Business Challenges and the Small Business Committee’s legislation actually complement each other.
The panel concluded that small businesses face particular challenges in contracting with the Defense Department. DOD lacks a culture that fosters small-business participation, it said. More broadly, DOD has a confusing acquisition rule book that constantly changes, the panel said.
As for small-business reforms, one bill would raise the governmentwide small-business contracting goal from 23 percent to 25 percent -- with budgetary consequences for missing the mark. Others would increase the level of responsibility for small-business advocates inside each agency, improve mentor-protégé programs and tackle unjustified contract bundling.
Another bill would address a deceptive contracting practice called pass-throughs. In a pass-through, a small company wins a contract set aside just for certain companies and then passes the majority of the work onto a large company.