VICTORY – SBA ANNOUNCES FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WOMEN’S PROCUREMENT PROGRAM

Door Opens to $25 Billion in Government Contracts for Women Owned Businesses

Washington, D.C. – October 6, 2010 – TargetGov President, Gloria Larkin, applauds the efforts of Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) as the Small Business Administration releases the final rule which will implement the Women’s Procurement Program. This Program gives women business owners access to 5% of the federal procurement budget, which just last year, amounted to over $25 billion dollars.

The Women’s Procurement Program stalled for eleven years after being passed into law in the year 2000. Now finally enacted, contracting officers will have the ability to restrict competition to women-owned small businesses if the procurement falls within one of the eighty-three (83) North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes specified in the program.

“I know there are thousands of businesses owned by women employing hundreds of thousands of people that will benefit by this. It is a huge step to helping build this economy and strengthen our county.” said Gloria Larkin, business owner and government contractor. “The federal government has missed the women’s business contracting goal by over $6 billion dollars just last year—now there will be no excuse.”

“For eleven long years, we have anxiously awaited final implementation of the Women’s Procurement Program. Thanks to Administrator Karen Mills and her team, the program is finally underway,” said Barbara Kasoff, President of Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP). “WIPP’s efforts led the way to ensure that women contractors have the opportunity to receive their fair share of contracting dollars. We believe that increased federal contracting opportunities will give women business owners a solid chance at growing their business,” added Kasoff.

Since 2008, Gloria Larkin has been instrumental in building WIPP’s Give Me 5 Program (www.GiveMe5.com ) which has helped increase the number of women-owned businesses registered on the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) by over 30%. The CCR is the government database that was used to determine the number of eligible industries in the new program. Along with advocacy for passage and implementation of the Program, WIPP’s educational initiatives have worked to build the pool of women-owned businesses ready to bid on federal contracts.

Important to the program’s success is a change made in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 which restored “parity” among all of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) small business contracting programs. The program will be considered equal to any other small business contracting program. This issue is highlighted in WIPP’s Economic Blueprint: The Women Business Owners’ Platform for Growth, unveiled during the WIPP 2010 Annual Leadership Conference. The Blueprint serves as WIPP’s voice regarding challenges unique to small businesses that require action by our elected officials.

Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) is a national nonpartisan group with over half-a-million members. WIPP is the collective voice in Washington, D.C., for 51 national women and small business organizations. WIPP advocates for and on behalf of women in business in the legislative process of our nation, creating economic opportunities for members and building alliances with other small business organizations.

TargetGov (www.targetgov.com ) is the firm owned by Gloria Larkin which specializes in helping small and large companies successfully compete in the federal marketplace. She is the past Procurement Committee co-chair for WIPP and currently serves on the governing Board of Directors.

TargetGov at
Marketing Outsource Associates, Inc.
6044 Old Lawyers Hill Road
Elkridge, MD 21075

Contact: Gloria Larkin
President, TargetGov
glorialarkin@targetgov.com
office: 410-579-1346

This release was published on openPR.