Rush introduces "Minority Business Enhancement Act" bill to expand economic opportunity for America's small businesses

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U. S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush (IL-01) introduced a piece of legislation designed to tear down the wall of economic barriers that prevent minority- and women-owned businesses from fully participating in the American dream.  H.R. 2299, the "Minority Business Enhancement Act of 2009" (MBE), is a bill that will amend the Small Business Act to allow for greater participation in the Disadvantaged Business Assistance Program while also elevating the federal, small business procurement goal for all federally designated U. S. small businesses to a permanent, new level of 25 percent.

"In 2009, our nation should no longer be talking about business and entrepreneurial opportunity in racial or gender terms.  Success and creativity are not determined by birth, race or gender but, rather, by intelligence, true grit and the capacity to think outside the box.  Our nation is full of stories of those who've risen to entrepreneurial success when the odds were stacked against them.  Think of the legendary Chicago entrepreneur John Johnson, the founder of Ebony magazine.  He benefited from a collateralized loan of $500 that he gained through help from his mother who believed in his dream that positive stories of the African American experience could uplift the souls of those who our government, at that time, had largely pushed to the side.  The bill I've introduced, today, is designed to level the playing field once and for all so that motivated men and women today—regardless of race, gender or class—might look, for instance, at a failing news industry and re-imagine it in 21st century terms.  This bill is dedicated to those who dare to dream and my job, as a legislator, is to do all I can to help them get there."

MBE is a bill that was introduced with 25 original co-sponsors.  Specifically, this legislation seeks to amend four important elements of the Small Business Act (SBA) as follows:

Title I. Disadvantaged Business Enhancement

• Raise the Personal Net Worth (PNW) limit to as much as $1.5 million to meet inflation and current economic norms for personal wealth
• Eliminate the 9-year limit for businesses to participate in the program, a provision that will allow firms to complete a federal contract before losing assistance from the program

Title II. Surety Bonding Improvement

• Permanently raises the SBA Surety Bond Guarantee to $5 million, a provision that maintains this new, higher standard set by the Obama Administration when it was adopted, this year, as part of the FY 09 economic stimulus package
• MBE would also give the SBA Administrator the authority to raise the limit to $10 million if circumstances dictate
• Amends the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make this higher standard permanent

Title III. Removing the Barriers to Contracts

• Amends the Small Business Act to redefine the term "bundled contract" as a contract entered into to meet procurement requirements that are consolidated in a bundling of contract requirements, without regard to its designation by the procuring agency or whether a study of the effects of the solicitation on civilian or military personnel has been made
• Allows the SBA Administrator to review possibly bundled contracts and to request that the solicitation process be delayed for no more than 10 days to allow for SBA recommendations to be made
• Allows the Office of Management and Budget to mediate any bundling disputes between the SBA and the agency awarding the contract

Title IV. Contracting Goals and Reporting Requirements

• Increases the government-wide small business procurement contract goal from 23% to 25%
• Increases from 5% to 10% the government-wide procurement goal for small, disadvantaged businesses and women-owned businesses
• Prohibits contracting officers from coding a minority business in any more than one other minority category
• Limits the coding to no more than two categories
• Requires the GAO to conduct a contracting disparity study and to report back to Congress no later than October 1, 2010

A list of the original co-sponsors of this legislation is as follows:

Rep Barrow, John [D-GA-12]
Rep Brown, Corrine [D-FL-3]
Rep Clarke, Yvette D. [D-NY-11]
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [D-MO-1]
Rep Cleaver, Emanuel [D-MO-5]
Rep Clyburn, James E. [D-SC-6]
Rep Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9]
Rep Crowley, Joseph [D-NY-7]
Rep Cummings, Elijah E. [D-MD-7]
Rep Edwards, Donna F. [D-MD-4]
Rep Fudge, Marcia L. [D-OH-11]
Rep Israel, Steve [D-NY-2]
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [D-TX-18]
Rep Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [D-GA-4]
Rep Kaptur, Marcy [D-OH-9]
Rep Langevin, James R. [D-RI-2]
Rep Lee, Barbara [D-CA-9]
Rep McDermott, Jim [D-WA-7]
Rep Moore, Dennis [D-KS-3]
Rep Ortiz, Solomon P. [D-TX-27]
Rep Perlmutter, Ed [D-CO-7]
Rep Ross, Mike [D-AR-4]
Rep Tauscher, Ellen O. [D-CA-10]
Rep Towns, Edolphus [D-NY-10]
Rep Weiner, Anthony D. [D-NY-9]

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