[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 15609-15610]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        PROCUREMENT TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER IMPROVEMENT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DONALD A. MANZULLO

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 31, 2001

  Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, small business participation in government 
procurement is dropping. While the dollar value of procurement 
opportunities is relatively constant, the absolute number of small 
businesses winning government contracts has dramatically decreased over 
the past four years.
  One possible solution to this problem can be to enhance the role of 
Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs). During the 1980's, 
Congress created local PTACs around the country to increase small 
business participation in defense procurement. Modeled after Small 
Business Development Centers (SDBCs) run by the Small Business 
Administration (SBA), these centers offer free advice and help to small 
businesses both in educating them about how to get involved in 
government procurement and also how to obtain contracts. Most of the 
PTACs are co-located in a local higher education institution or a 
Chamber of Commerce. About half of the funding for most of the PTACs 
comes from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The remainder comes from 
the state government and/or the local host (i.e., the community 
college). States currently have a choice: they can either ask for up to 
$300,000 to run a state-wide program or regional centers can ask for up 
to $150,000 to run a program locally.
  Some states have decided to run a state-wide program in order to have 
continuity of service throughout the state. However, some states do not 
care and have allowed regional or city PTACs to operate. Currently, 15 
states have regional or city PTACs that receive an excess of $300,000. 
This penalizes states like my home state of Illinois who have opted for 
a ``good government'' solution--a seamless delivery of procurement 
assistance services throughout the state.
  I have introduced the Procurement Technical Assistance Improvement 
Act to increase the DLA grant match to states that run a state-wide 
PTAC program so that they would be able to receive up to $600,000 in 
funding, double the current level of $300,000. This

[[Page 15610]]

would potentially benefit the 29 states and the one territory that have 
a state-wide PTAC program and the six states and the four other 
territories that do not have any PTAC program. It is important to 
remember that each state with a state-wide run PTAC program would not 
automatically receive a $600,000 grant from the DLA because each 
proposal would have to stand on its own merits. Currently, 10 states 
and one territory do not even receive the full $300,000 in grant funds 
from the DLA for a state-wide PTAC program. Thus, this proposal does 
not necessarily mean that the cost of the program would balloon. Only 
those states that submit a sound proposal who serve a large population 
would qualify for a maximum of $600,000. Finally, this proposal would 
not mean that states with regional centers would receive less funding. 
This proposal is silent on the match received from DLA to regional 
PTACs.
  With the criticism of recent Pentagon procurements that disadvantage 
small businesses, this is one way to remedy the problem. Mr. Speaker, I 
urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

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