Ernst calls on SBA to meet contracting goals for disabled veteran-owned small businesses

The federal government is failing to meet mandated goals to prioritize veteran-owned small businesses when awarding government contracts, says U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who called on the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to rectify the situation.

“I write to express my concern that the federal government has yet again failed to reach the legally required contracting goals for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses over the last 10 years,” Sen. Ernst wrote in a Sept. 7 letter sent to SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman.

“It is of vital importance to ensure that the federal government is meeting its obligations under law for those that have sacrificed so much for this country,” wrote the senator, a senior member of the U.S. Senate Small Business Committee.

Currently, the federal government is required to allocate at least 3 percent of government-wide prime contracts and subcontracts each year to service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses, according to Sen. Ernst’s letter.

However, she wrote that the SBA has reported that the federal government has not met the overall prime contracting goal for service-disabled, small businesses for two out of the last 10 years, and also has not met the subcontracting goal for all of the last 10 years.

“Fulfilling our promises to service-disabled, veteran small business owners is not simply a suggestion but an obligation of the federal government,” Sen. Ernst wrote. “It is a law that should not, and cannot, be ignored.”

Sen. Ernst also chastised the SBA for not yet developing a strategy to ensure that federal agencies reach these government-wide goals, and requested that Guzman answer several questions, including how the SBA plans to hold federal agencies accountable for failing to meet the procurement goals for small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, and if the SBA plans to provide publicly available guidance to federal agencies to meet such goals.

“The SBA cannot continue to fail our veterans in this way,” wrote Sen. Ernst. “I look forward to working with you to address the failure of federal agencies to fulfill their promises to small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, and to protect our economic security.”