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For the first time in history, small businesses received a
record-breaking $79.6 billion in federal prime contracts, $10 billion more than
the year before, Administrator Hector V. Barreto of the U.S. Small Business
Administration announced in June.
The contracts represented 25.4% of federal prime contracting
dollars in FY 2005, surpassing the overall government statutory goal of 23% for
the third consecutive year.
The small business contracting data was reported by the
government’s Federal Procurement Data-Next Generation (FPDS-NG) system. The
data show that the federal government purchased $314 billion worth of goods and
services from businesses large and small.
The Department of Defense, the leading purchaser of goods and
services, awarded $53.8 billion of its contracts, or about 24.6%, to small
businesses.
The FPDS-NG report showed that the government surpassed the 5%
goal of contracts going to small disadvantaged businesses. Participants in the
SBA’s 8(a) Business Development received $10.5 billion in contracts, a 25%
increase over the previous year. Firms in the Historically Underutilized
Business Zone (HUBZone) program received $6.1 billion in contracts, a 27%
increase.
Contracting dollars awarded to women-owned small businesses
increased by $1.4 billion to a record $10.5 billion, a 15% increase over the
previous year.
Contracts to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses
increased significantly, reaching $1.9 billion, up from $1.2 billion in FY 2004
and a 58% increase over the previous year.
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