INTRODUCTION
The Architect of the Capitol has its own unique procurement authority, separate from the Competition in Contracting Act and other laws affecting the Executive Branch, and is not authorized by law to use the Small Business Act for set-aside programs or subcontracting plans. However, the AOC’s procurement authority does provide considerable discretion in the level of competition required when using small purchase procedures for open market purchases and nothing prohibits the AOC from requiring subcontracting goals and accomplishments from prime contractors. Nonetheless, AOC is interested in directing more business opportunities to the small business community, and so has created a small business subcontracting program and is in the process of creating a small business set-aside program that are similar to that used in the Executive Branch.
OFFICE OF THE SMALL BUSINESS COORDINATOR
The AOC has designated the Chief, Procurement Policy, as the agency’s Small Business Coordinator. This individual is responsible for performing functions normally performed by an Executive Branch agency’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU). This individual is responsible for proposing policy for small business programs, training AOC staff, advocating for small business concerns and programs, providing reports on accomplishments, reviewing subcontracting goals and reports and recommending changes or corrections, attending small business conferences, concurring or not concurring on requirements that are not proposed to be set-aside for small business concerns, and other activities as related to small business issues. Lisa Russell, the Small Business Coordinator, can be contacted at (202) 226-1407 or smallbusiness@aoc.gov
SUBCONTRACTING PROGRAM
In August 2007, the AOC began requiring a small business subcontracting plan from all large businesses awarded contracts or task orders exceeding $1,000,000 for construction. Contracts where this is a requirement contain a subcontracting plan clause. Contractors are required to submit a plan with goals within a specified period of time after award of the contract action. On a semi-annual basis, the cumulative accomplishments must be reported to the Contracting Officer. Only individual plans are acceptable. The subcontracting goals for these plans should be equal to or greater than the following:
Small business concerns - 28%
Small disadvantaged business concerns - 8%
Women-owned small business concerns - 5%
HUBZone small business concerns - 3%
Service-disabled veteran-owned small business concerns - 3%
For information on the AOC's small business subcontracting plan program, please contact the following AOC Small Business Specialists:
Lisa Russell (202) 226-1407
SMALL BUSINESS SET-ASIDES
The AOC’s small purchase limitation is $100,000 and the competition threshold is $5,000. The future small business set-aside program will be applicable to open market purchases exceeding $5,000 but $100,000 or less. This program will use as much as possible of the existing structure of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s small business set-aside procedures, but will require that some separate procedures be developed in areas where the SBA’s decisions are binding on the procuring agency.
