President Obama has called small business the “backbone of our economy.” At the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, we recognize the immense value that small businesses offer our Nation by creating jobs — they employ 50% of U.S. workers — and energizing local communities. We greatly depend on small businesses to help us provide value to the Nation through any number of projects and programs that support our military and civil works missions at home and in 39 nations around the world.

Last week, we were proud to participate in the Society of American Military Engineers’ Small Business Conference near Dallas, Texas. It gave us a chance for us to thank the small business community for the hard work they’ve done for our Nation this past year and hear from them what we can do to help make it easier to serve.

In 2010, they provided our Nation a tremendous value by executing more than $9.7 billion on USACE projects worldwide, including nearly $900 million of which was executed by small businesses owned by our disabled veterans. That’s building strong!

But these contracts are more than numbers on a ledger. They represent the innovation and determination of small business owners to help strengthen our Nation’s infrastructure and economy by developing and implementing environmentally sustainable solutions, constructing flood risk management projects, and developing programs that aim to energize our Nation’s youth in science, technology, engineering and math, to name just a few.

Small business are vital to meeting the engineering demands of our Country. We need them to continue to thrive so that they can share their expertise, ingenuity and energy to help build our Country STRONG!

Van

ltg.van Contracting, Corps Projects, Employment, Infrastructure, Small Business government contracting, Small Business

I had the honor of representing USACE at an event for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Minority Institutions at Howard University here in Washington, DC recently. They were honoring “top supporters” – organizations, agencies and companies that contribute significantly to HBCUs.
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The way that we contribute is really interesting. We have a certain amount of money allocated to us each year that is specifically to use with educational facilities, to have them do research or design work, things like that for us. This challenges the students with real world experience, helps us to “build the bench” of the future engineer workforce, and helps us keep costs down, as well.
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The Army aims to have 13 percent of that education money go to HBCUs. And even though they still have to compete to get it (we can’t set it aside for them, legally), we’ve already surpassed that goal.
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Not only was USACE among the “top supporters,” but they put my picture on the cover of this month’s US Black Engineer magazine! (I thought it was going to be a small picture in the lower corner of the cover!!) Check it out by clicking here.

I’m really passionate about this effort, because it’s essential in building diversity in engineering, which I know will make us a better, stronger Corps of Engineers.
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One other cool tid-bit I got from this event – did you know that Howard University was the first institution to offer an engineering degree to African Americans?
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It was a GREAT day, indeed.

ltg.van Contracting, Miscellaneous "neat stuff" government contracting, historically black colleges and universities, Howard University, Small Business

This week I am in Memphis hosting the Corps’ Small Business Conference, sponsored by The Society of American Military Engineers. Small businesses play a key role in strengthening and restoring our Nation’s infrastructure and supporting our service men and women with first-class facilities.

Small businesses provide an important link to our communities and local governments. They are entrepreneurs responsible for most of the new inventions. Did you know that the majority of our Nation’s patents come from small businesses?

Last year, fiscal year 2008, was a record year for the Corps, as we awarded nearly $7 billion to small businesses- $1 billion more than 2007. Dollars to “Service Disabled, Veteran Owned Business” doubled to $541 million. We predict 2009 will be an even better year! We plan to award 115 civil works contracts in New Orleans alone- many to small businesses. We are depending on our partnership with small businesses to help us deliver superior performance!

ltg.van Miscellaneous "neat stuff", Small Business Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business, Small Business, Society of American Military Engineers