Women Construction Owners & Executives, USA (WCOE) is a national association representing women owners and executives in the construction industry.  Women business owners face additional barriers of socio-economic stereotyping, which inhibit their ability to obtain capital, contracts, bonding, and access to market opportunities.  This is especially true in nontraditional fields, such as construction.  We continue to advocate for laws and regulations that help all small businesses, particularly those that will create a level playing field for women business owners. 

WCOE is pleased with the recent proposed rules issued by the Small Business Administration to implement the 8m program to address the underutilization of women owned businesses. We will be submitting formal written comments in May. A summary of our comments will include:

•   The cap for any set aside contract for construction or construction related work for an ESWOSB should be increased to equal or exceed the cap for manufacturing ($5 million).

•   The net worth cap of $750,000 (which has not been increased since the 1980s) should be increased to $3 million and indexed annually.

•   All women owned businesses should be tracked and counted on government issued contracts, whether EDWOSB, WOSB or WOB

•   Small business size standards for the construction industry should be based on the number of full time workers employed and NOT gross revenues of a company which typical involves the high cost of concrete, steel and materials supplied by others. WCOE recommends that 750 employees in FTEs (full time equivalents) be the new size standard for all construction NAISC codes.

The federally adopted procurement goal of 5% for women owned businesses needs to be attached to all federal dollars, including those dollars awarded to State and local governments, whether by grants, contracts or through ARRA allocations.

The U.S. DOT gross revenue cap places additional restrictions on women businesses in order for them to compete in the DBE outreach program. Women already face barriers and stereotypes that limit our ability to competitively bid and perform projects.  The fact that many federal agencies still seem unable to meet the already low procurement goal for women owned businesses after a decade, is evidence that “business as usual” is not working. The gross revenue cap needs to be abolished. The SBA size standards should set the definition of a small business.

National guidelines and standards have been created for disparity studies. These guidelines developed by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences provide clear guidance to recipients to ensure that disparity studies are consistent between recipients. It is critical that U.S. DOT require recipients who opt to do a disparity study to follow these national guidelines.

Date

State or National

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Notice Pursuant to Exec. Order 12600 of Receipt of FOIA Requests for Access to CCR Database

Department of Defense

Federal Government Efforts in Contracting with Women Owned businesses