Congressional minority caucuses call for data on government spending on contractors

A tri-party caucus in Congress called on the Small Business Administration (SBA) to release complete federal contract spending data disaggregated by race and ethnicity.

The chairs of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), as well as Representative Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), lead 40 Democrats. drafted the bill. letter On Friday, it asked SBA Secretary Isabel Guzmán for data from all federal agencies.

“In fiscal year 2020, the federal government spent more than $665 billion on contracts,” the letter states. “However, minority-owned businesses often struggle to win federal contracts, depriving those businesses and their communities of billions of dollars in opportunity.”

One study Cited in the letter, if minority-owned businesses had received 2020 federal contract dollars in proportion to their share of the U.S. business sector, they would have received an additional $64 billion in federal contracts. .

Black-owned businesses will receive an additional $4 billion in contract awards, and Hispanic-owned businesses will receive nearly $24 billion more in contract awards.

The Biden-Harris administration first released this data in December 2021, but the 2021 and 2022 data released in January was limited to the top five federal agencies.

“As members of Congress, we are writing to remind the administration of this commitment, and publishing this data for all federal agencies will help legislators understand the needs of America’s 33.2 million small businesses. We reiterate our commitment to helping, while promoting greater economic opportunity for marginalized groups,” the lawmakers said. I have written.

The lawmakers added that the availability of such data would help monitor equity and understand the disparities faced by minority-owned small businesses.

Lawmakers are calling for the data to be released by April 30th.

The Hill has reached out to the Small Business Administration for comment.