On behalf of the New York City chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO-NYC) part of a national organization that represents the interests of 10.4 million women business owners, we are disappointed by the proposed SBA ruling. The ruling is a drastic step backwards in chipping away at the little progress that women made over the past seven years to gain a mere five percent of federal contracts, while half of all privately held companies have a woman owner. Women business owners are an important part of the economic fabric and rather than support women business owners, we feel that the SBA has delivered a lump of coal to women business owners. This proposed rule demonstrates that women business owners are not important to this administration or the political process.

1. In 1994, Congressional legislation mandated that five percent of government contracts go to women-owned businesses. To help meet this goal, a set-aside program for women-owned businesses was established in 2000. Currently, only three percent of federal contracts go to women-owned businesses.

2. The new SBA proposed rule will only allow federal agencies to implement the set-aside program for women owned businesses in four of over 2,300 business categories, and, even then, only after the agencies individually document that they previously discriminated against women owned businesses. If implemented consistent with the proposed rules, the set-aside program will do little if anything to increase the share of federal contracts that go to women-owned businesses.

3. If women business owners had received five percent (rather than three) of the $277.5 billion spent by the federal government with prime contractors in FY 2003, they would have received $13.68 billion in contracts. That's $4.9 billion more than they actually received. Meeting the five percent procurement goal will help women business owners achieve greater success.