U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) decision to extend the public comment period on the proposed women’s contracting rule for an additional 60 days:

"I commend the SBA for providing more time for concerned stakeholders to share their essential views on this flawed rule," Senator Snowe said. "Acting Administrator Sandy K. Baruah has been particularly responsive to my concerns during his tenure at the SBA, and I thank him for his willingness to allow further discussion and debate on this critical program. The current rule would do little to address the underlying concerns of women contractors, a result that is simply unacceptable. I look forward to working with the incoming Obama Administration to correct the inequities facing women-owned businesses."

As part of its recent final rule, the SBA separately requested public comments on a new proposed rule that could change the number of available business industries for women-owned small businesses. Citing Senator Snowe’s letter to Acting Administration Baruah on December 12, 2008, the SBA today announced that it will be extending the comment period an additional 60 days.

Under present law, the Federal government has a 5 percent women’s contracting goal. To help address the underrepresentation of women entrepreneurs in the government marketplace, Congress in 2000 established the Women’s Procurement Program. The SBA has failed to implement the women’s program during the nearly eight years since its enactment. Notably, in Fiscal Year 2007, women-owned businesses were only awarded 3.4 percent of Federal contracting dollars, resulting in the failure to meet the 5 percent government-wide contracting goal by nearly 33 percent.