I
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 5314
To provide for a Small and Disadvantaged Business Ombudsman for
Procurement in the Small Business Administration, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 26, 2002
Mr. WYNN (for himself, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mrs. CHRISTENSEN, Mr.
CUMMINGS, Mr. SCOTT, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, and Mrs. CLAYTON) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Small
Business
A BILL
To provide for a Small and Disadvantaged Business Ombuds-
man for Procurement in the Small Business Administra-
tion, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Small and Disadvan-
taged Business Ombudsman Act’’.
SEC. 2. SBA SMALL AND DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS OM-
BUDSMAN FOR PROCUREMENT.
Section 30 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 657)
is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)—
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and’’;
(B) in paragraph (2), by striking the pe-
riod and adding a semicolon; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(3) ‘SDB Ombudsman’ means the Small and
Disadvantaged Business Ombudsman for Procure-
ment, designated under subsection (e); and
‘‘(4) ‘Major Federal agency’ means an agency
of the United States Government that, in the pre-
vious fiscal year, entered into contracts with non-
Federal entities to provide the agency with a total
of not less than $200,000,000 in goods or services.’’;
and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(e) SBA SMALL AND DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS
OMBUDSMAN FOR PROCUREMENT.—
‘‘(1) APPOINTMENT.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 180
days after the date of enactment of the Small
and Disadvantaged Business Ombudsman Act,
the Administrator shall designate a Small and
Disadvantaged Business Ombudsman for Pro-
curement (referred to in this section as the
‘SDB Ombudsman’).
‘‘(B) QUALIFICATIONS.—The SDB Om-
budsman shall be—
‘‘(i) highly qualified, with experience
assisting small business concerns with Fed-
eral procurement; and
‘‘(ii) designated from among employ-
ees of the Federal Government, to the ex-
tent practicable.
‘‘(C) LINE
OF
AUTHORITY.—The SDB
Ombudsman shall report directly to the Admin-
istrator.
‘‘(D) SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE.—The
SDB Ombudsman shall be paid at an annual
rate not less than the minimum rate, nor more
than the maximum rate, for the Senior Execu-
tive Service under chapter 53 of title 5, United
States Code.
‘‘(2) DUTIES.—The SDB Ombudsman shall—
‘‘(A) work with each Federal agency with
procurement authority to ensure that small
business concerns are treated fairly in the pro-
curement process;
‘‘(B) establish a procedure for receiving
comments from small business concerns and
personnel of the Office of Small and Disadvan-
taged Business Utilization of each Federal
agency regarding the activities of agencies and
prime contractors that are not small business
concerns on Federal procurement contracts; and
‘‘(C) establish a procedure for addressing
the concerns received under subparagraph (B).
‘‘(3) ANNUAL REPORT.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—No later than 1 year
after the date of enactment of this subsection,
and annually thereafter, the SDB Ombudsman
shall provide a report to the Committee on
Small Business of the House of Representatives
and the Committee on Small Business and En-
trepreneurship of the Senate.
‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The report required
under subparagraph (A) shall contain—
‘‘(i) information from the Federal
Procurement Data System pertaining to
contracting and subcontracting goals of the
Federal Government and each Federal
agency with procurement authority;
‘‘(ii) a copy of the report submitted to
the SDB Ombudsman by each major Fed-
eral agency and an evaluation of the goal
attainment plans submitted to the SDB
Ombudsman pursuant to paragraph (5);
‘‘(iii) an evaluation of the success or
failure of each major Federal agency in at-
taining its small business procurement
goals, including a ranking by agency on
the attainment of such goals;
‘‘(iv) a summary of the efforts of each
major Federal agency to promote con-
tracting opportunities for small business
concerns by—
‘‘(I) educating and training pro-
curement officers on the importance
of small business concerns to the
economy and to Federal contracting;
and
‘‘(II) conducting outreach initia-
tives to promote prime and subcon-
tracting opportunities for small busi-
ness concerns;
‘‘(v) an assessment of the knowledge
of the procurement staff of each major
Federal agency concerning programs that
promote small business contracting;