Letter to The Honorable Isabel Guzman, Administrator, Small Business Administration (October 25, 2023)
Summary
A letter dated October 25, 2023 to the Honorable Isabel Guzman, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, requests that the agency release updated, disaggregated data of federal contracting spending by race/ethnicity of business owners for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22). The letter applauds the Administration's release of this data in 2021, which it describes as the first time the data was publicly released. It states that the data highlighted inequalities in the procurement system and has been used to help shape policies that seek to correct them. The Committee asks the SBA to compile the information from the FY22 data as soon as practicable. Footnotes cite an SBA release of December 1, 2021 and a fact sheet of December 2, 2021.
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“Letter to The Honorable Isabel Guzman, Administrator, Small Business Administration (October 25, 2023).”
Original at democrats-smallbusiness.house.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/4739-2024-02-02-ranking-member-vel-zquez-applauds-sba-release-of-m-att-103e07569f/
, SHA-256 5691af67aca5c18b3c45bb3bdead3c1f97661c97510acf48b00d15c3d180d409.Full text
October 25, 2023
The Honorable Isabel Guzman
Administrator
Small Business Administration
409 3rd Street, SW
Washington, DC 20024
Dear Administrator Guzman:
We are writing to request that the Small Business Administration release updated, disaggregated data of
federal contracting spending by race/ethnicity of business owners for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22). We
applaud the Administration’s release of this data in 2021, which represented the first time this data was
publicly released,1 and believe that it was a critical step in the Administration’s efforts to establish a more
equitable federal procurement system and empower underrepresented entrepreneurs.
We also agree with the Administration that this data is “a powerful transparency and management tool.”2
It not only highlighted inequalities in the procurement system but has been used since to help inform and
shape policies that seek to correct them.
Given the ongoing challenges for small businesses in the federal marketplace, including and especially for
minority-owned small businesses and programs that focus on minority-owned businesses, we believe that
this data will continue to demonstrate the need for targeted programs.
Updating and releasing this information would be a prudent and clear step toward our shared goal of
increasing opportunity for all underserved small business government contractors. Accordingly, the
Committee requests that the SBA compile this information from the FY22 data as soon as practicable. We
believe that this information is especially timely and prudent and would be helpful to ongoing efforts to
protect programs that level the playing field for minority-owned businesses.
Thank you for your time and attention to this request.
Sincerely,
1 U.S. Small Business Administration, SBA Releases FY 2020 Disaggregated Contracting Data, December 1, 2021:
https://www.sba.gov/blog/sba-releases-fy-2020-disaggregated-contracting-data
2 "FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Reforms to Increase Equity and Level the Playing Field for
Underserved Small Business Owners,” December 2, 2021: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-
releases/2021/12/02/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-reforms-to-increase-equity-and-level-the-playing-field-for-
underserved-small-business-owners/
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