Landrieu Fights for Small-Business Contracts in Military Procurement Process

United States Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary Landrieu [D-La.] wrote today to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin [D-Mich.] and Ranking Member John McCain [R-Ariz.] in support of the Weapons System Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 [S.454], which was marked up this morning.

Specifically, Sen. Landrieu indicated her support for Section 205, “Organizational Conflicts of Interest in the Acquisition of Major Weapon Systems,” and Section 203, “Maximization of Competition Throughout the Life Cycle of Major Defense Acquisition Programs,” which would increase meaningful opportunities for small businesses to compete for Department of Defense [DoD] projects.

Currently, the DoD procurement process sometimes lacks independent or objective analysis to determine the best firm for a particular contract. In her letter, Sen. Landrieu cited an example in which a small business was nearly put out of business because the DoD disregarded a conflict of interest when making a contracting decision.

With the help of the Small Business Innovation Research [SBIR] program, the company, NAVSYS Corporation, developed technology for a GPS navigation system for the Air Force, which the government found helpful. When the Air Force began to transition the technology into its GPS program, it asked the prime contractor to assess whether the technology should be used. The prime contractor, however, had a conflict of interest in determining whether the small business should get the contract or the prime contractor should do it themselves. The prime contractor ultimately decided to do it themselves.

“Small businesses are too often overlooked or harmed by the federal government’s contracting process,” Sen. Landrieu said today. “Section 205 of the Weapons System Acquisition Reform Act will go a long way toward protecting small businesses from conflicts of interest, while eliminating waste and inefficiency at the DoD.

“Section 203 of the bill would also help to maximize competition for defense acquisition contracts, which will help small businesses because it creates more potential opportunities for them to participate.”

Sen. Landrieu’s letter to Sens. Levin and McCain is available online at: http://tinyurl.com/d7zc3s.

GoodBiz113's take: For far too long, greedy and gluttonous prime contractors have feasted at the DoD contracting table. It's time for them to share the wealth of DoD procurement opportunities with smaller, leaner and faster enterprises who bring real innovation and cost-effective efficiencies to the needs of our military forces. Bravo to Sen. Landrieu for her efforts to improve DoD's acquisition procedures to serve the greater good.

SOURCES: Library of Congress, U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship
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Kerry, Levin Extend Small Business Innovation Program

Late yesterday, the Senate passed the Department of Defense authorization bill, with provisions secured by Sens. John Kerry [D-Mass.] and Carl Levin [D-Mich., pictured] to extend the Small Business Innovation Research [SBIR] program through 2010, and to increase the transition and commercialization of products developed by small firms that participate in the program.

Kerry is the chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Levin chairs the Committee on Armed Services. The SBIR program is set to expire on September 30, 2008.

“The SBIR program is critical to our national security and our country’s competitiveness in a global economy,” said Kerry. “Technologies developed through the program are helping to keep our troops safe on the battleground, improving our health care, and expanding our ability to combat global warming.

“We need to keep this program strong, avoid any contracting delays or shut-downs, and provide more resources to rapidly transition the most promising technologies into weapons systems or on the market quickly. I thank Sen. Levin and all the members of the Armed Services Committee for their leadership on these amendments and their support of this program.”

“The SBIR program creates jobs, increases our capacity for technological innovation and boosts our international competitiveness,” explained Levin, who also serves on Kerry's committee. “The program has demonstrated that federal agencies can work with small businesses to develop and commercialize technologies in a cost-effective way.”

The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship will be working on legislation to reauthorize the SBIR program next year. Kerry and Levin worked to include this extension as part of the defense bill to prevent a shut-down or delay of this important research and development program when it expires next year. Eight years ago, the program shut down because the program was not renewed in a timely way. This temporary extension will provide time that lawmakers need to develop bipartisan legislation that will be signed into law.

The Senate also passed an amendment to build upon a pilot program that Sens. Kerry and Olympia Snowe [R-Maine] created in 2005 to help firms transition their projects into commercialized products. The amendment, sponsored by Kerry and Snowe, and supported by Levin, extends the pilot program through 2012 to help small firms bring their products and innovations into the marketplace.

Source: U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
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