This week U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced legislation to encourage women’s business ownership and give women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) more opportunities to win federal contracts. The National Women’s Business Council released the following statement in support of The Women’s Small Business Procurement Parity Act of 2014:
 
“Women’s economic parity must continue to be at the forefront of policymakers’ efforts to move our economy in the right direction. Women-owned small businesses contribute significantly to our country’s economy. Policies such as the Women’s Small Business Procurement Parity Act will enable women small business owners to significantly increase their contracting competitiveness, enhance their business and economic stability and further fuel their ability to contribute jobs to our economy. Economic stability isn’t a women’s issue, it’s an economic issue,” said NWBC Chair Carla Harris. “In order to spur economic growth, there must be a continuation of innovative polices like the Women’s Small Business Procurement Parity Act to support the rapidly growing population of women entrepreneurs, who are leading our country in entrepreneurship.”
 
The Women’s Small Business Procurement Parity Act would support additional contracting for WOSBs by removing the sole-source authority restriction on the WOSB procurement program to give it parity with other small business federal contracting programs and help meet the 5 percent WOSBs contracting goal. The National Women’s Business Council commends Senators Shaheen, Cantwell, and Gillibrand for making women’s procurement parity a priority, and encourages lawmakers to provide the necessary resources to both implement and ensure parity across the board and throughout government contracting programs supporting small businesses.

 
For press availability for the NWBC Chair on the topic of women’s procurement parity, please contact Krystal Glass at Krystal.Glass@nwbc.gov
 
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