Published June 2005

SBA Briefs

SBA, GSA deal enhances
contracting opportunities
The U.S. Small Business Administration and the General Services Administration recently renewed their agreement to strengthen the relationship between the two agencies and share information about small-business contracting opportunities in order to encourage more small-business participation in the GSA’s federal contract procurement process.

Under the newly signed memorandum of understanding, the two agencies will work together to disseminate to small businesses information about opportunities for contracts, training, workshops and matchmaking-type events taking place across the country.

The SBA will help the GSA identify industries in which there are many small businesses capable of fulfilling federal contracts as well as provide information to GSA on its federal contracting programs.

Also, the SBA will issue quarterly reports on the status of GSA’s major procurement goals for small businesses, women-owned small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, HUBZone businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

Amgen earns spot in 2005 Hall of Fame
Amgen Inc., which has facilities in Bothell and Seattle, was one of four former small businesses receiving early-stage SBA assistance to be honored as inductees into the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Hall of Fame in late April.

“These well-established businesses started out small and received help at varying points along the way from the U.S. Small Business Administration,” SBA Administrator Hector Barreto said.

“Their success was the result of hard work, good business practices and an unwavering commitment to succeed and grow. The SBA is proud to have played a small part in the pursuit of their dreams and those of many more small businesses like them across this country,” he said.

For Amgen, a leading human therapeutics company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, Calif., with 14,000 employees and 2004 revenues of $10.6 billion, SBA assistance came in the form of investment funding through the Small Business Investment Co. program in 1983 and 1986.

SBA lending up 27 percent
in first quarter of fiscal year
America’s small businesses continued borrowing to start and grow over the first six months of the current fiscal year, securing backing from the U.S. Small Business Administration on 27 percent more loans than in the same period a year ago, the federal agency said.

In the first half of fiscal year 2005, which began Oct. 1, 2004, the SBA, through its private-sector lending partners, approved 46,603 loans totaling $6.98 billion under its flagship 7(a) guaranteed loan program, compared to 36,646 loans worth $5.67 billion in the same period a year earlier, and 29,342 loans worth $4.85 billion two years ago.

“The trends we saw at the end of the first quarter are continuing,” said SBA Administrator Hector Barreto. “We had a record year last fiscal year, and we’re on track to have another one this year. These numbers also demonstrate continued confidence on the part of the American entrepreneurs who contribute to economic growth and job creation.”

The gains also are reflected in the SBA’s 504 loan program. Through the first six months of the fiscal year, the 504 program had issued 3,871 loans worth $2.04 billion, more than 4 percent ahead of the same period a year ago, when the program had 3,709 loans for $1.75 billion.

Legislation that became law in December makes $21 billion available through the SBA’s two main loan programs, providing $16 billion in small-business lending under the 7(a) program and $5 billion under the 504 program. Also, maximum government loan guarantees increased from $1 million to $1.5 million.

Federal contractor registration
database revamped
The U.S. Small Business Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration and the Department of Defense have revamped the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database to give the SBA oversight over the small-business designation process and to more accurately monitor contract awards.

“This upgrade to the CCR database will improve upon the accuracy of the federal government’s reporting of small-business achievements and will allow the SBA to monitor and confirm the companies’ small-business status,” SBA Administrator Hector Barreto said.

CCR is an online business portal that assists small businesses with marketing their goods and services to the federal government and prime contractors, helping federal agencies and prime contractors seek out small businesses for contract opportunities.

With the revamped CCR, small businesses will no longer be able to self-certify on the CCR database as a SBA-certified small disadvantaged business, 8(a)-certified business or HUBZone-certified business, the SBA said.

The agency now will mark the business fields in the database to indicate whether a business is SBA-certified small disadvantaged, 8(a)-certified or HUBZone-certified.

Small businesses registering in the CCR database, or updating their profile, will be presented with a small-business fraud and misrepresentation acknowledgement statement, which lists the penalties imposed for misrepresentation as a small business.

For more information, visit the Small Business Administration’s Web site at www.sba.gov/size and click on “What’s New?”

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