Glass Ceiling on Government Contracts?

Last Thursday, the New York Times reported that although women own almost half of all small businesses in the country, generating $2 trillion in revenue, they are awarded only 3.4% of annual federal contracts. In 2000, Congress voted to put in place safeguards so that businesses owned by women would be awarded at least 5% of such contracts, but implementing that legislation has been difficult. Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine (pictured) is dismissing as “a sham” the Small Business Association’s proposed rule to implement Congress’s directive from 2000.

She and 15 other women in the Senate have written to the S.B.A. to urge the agency to revisit the rule. Meanwhile, according to fcw.com, the Senate is considering a measure (or was in August) that would block the implementation of the proposed S.B.A. rule.

[Jeremy Telman]