The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced that the federal government has set a record in prime contract awards to small businesses. In fiscal year 2020, $145.7 billion in prime contracts were awarded to small businesses, representing 26.01 percent of total prime contract spending, and an increase of $13 billion over the previous year. Additionally, $82.8 billion was spent in fiscal year 2020 on subcontracts with small businesses.
The announcement comes as part of the SBA's annual evaluation of the federal government's performance in meeting its small business contracting goals. As the federal government as a whole achieved the mentioned rate of 26.01 percent, SBA awarded it an "A" letter grade for exceeding the small business utilization goal of 23 percent of prime contract dollars.
Additionally, the federal government exceeding the service-disabled veteran-owned small business and small disadvantaged business goals (3 percent and 5 percent, respectively) during fiscal year 2020. However, in noting progress still to be made, the SBA noted that the total number of individual small businesses receiving prime federal contracts decreased from the previous fiscal year (despite the dollar value of such awards rising).
"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," said SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman in a press release.
Read the SBA press release, and the individual agency scorecards, at https://www.sba.gov/article/2021/jul/28/federal-government-awards-record-breaking-1457-billion-contracting-small-businesses.
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