[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 72 (Friday, June 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
AMENDMENTS TO THE SMALL BUSINESS AND MINORITY PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITIES 
                              ACT OF 1994

  (Ms. MARGOLIES-MEZVINSKY asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. MARGOLIES-MEZVINSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to applaud 
the other body for passing the procurement goals for small business 
concerns owned by women amendment to the Federal Acquisition 
Streamlining Act of 1994. I applaud Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and 
Carol Moseley-Braun for working for the concerns of women-owned small 
business.
  I have introduced a similar amendment to H.R. 4263, the Small 
Business and Minority Procurement Opportunities Act of 1994, in the 
Committee on Small Business. I applaud the leading organizations across 
the country representing women business interest, lead by the National 
Women's Business Council, in joining together to make sure that 
procurement reform contains provisions to assist women-owned business 
to gain access to Federal Government procurement.
  Currently, there are more than 6.5 million women-owned small 
businesses. These businesses employ more workers than the Fortune 500 
and are found in all industry sectors. This number has grown by more 
than 60 percent in the past 5 years. In the same period, total receipts 
for women-owned small businesses have nearly tripled--raising to $278.1 
billion in 1987 and projected to reach $1 trillion in 1995.
  However, one of the major obstacles faced by women business owners is 
the lack of access to Federal procurement contracts. The U.S. 
Government is the world's largest buyer of goods and services. Each 
year, the Federal Government contracts billions of dollars out to 
businesses, but women rarely are the recipients of these luractive 
agreements. In fiscal year 1992, women received only 1.5 percent of the 
$190 billion in Federal contracts awarded that year. Women-owned 
businesses must be granted the opportunity to compete fairly in the 
Federal marketplace.
  I hope that here in the House we will all work in a spirit of 
cooperation and bipartisanship in order to achieve ``measurable goals'' 
for women-owned business. The time is now.

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