Federal Government Now Beginning to Follow California's Lead on Disabled Veteran Businesses
Published on 11/30/-0001
It appears that the Federal Government is beginning to follow California’s lead when it comes to developing business and contracting opportunities for disabled veteran-owned businesses. On October 20th 2004, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13360 which mandates that Federal agencies should significantly increase the Federal contracting and subcontracting opportunities for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB). The President has established a 3% goal for SDVB participation in Federal contracting and procurement in accordance with the Small Business Act.
Selected agencies are to develop opportunities for increasing it’s contracting with service-disabled veteran businesses; designate a senior level official for developing and implementing the agency’s strategy; and report progress annually to the Small Business Administration.
In February 2005, the US General Services Administration (USGSA) has begun a government-wide acquisition contract (GWAC) for IT services for federal government agencies. The GWAC, known as Veteran Technology Services (VETS) will be a 10 year $5 billion dollar contract will promote opportunities for disabled veteran small business owners to provide information technology (IT) services to federal government agencies. Contract awards have already been issued for 2006.
