New Small Disadvantaged Business Federal Contracting Goal Offers Opportunities for 8(a) and Non-8(a) Firms Alike

Venable – On June 1, 2021, the Biden administration announced that it is "launching an all-of-government effort to expand contracting opportunities for underserved small businesses across the country." The initiative includes a new goal of "increasing the share of contracts going to small disadvantaged businesses by 50 percent by 2026—translating to an additional $100 billion to [small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs)] over the 5-year period." This new goal for expanding federal contracting opportunities for SDBs appears to track generally with proposals made by President Biden during his campaign and in the initial summary of the fiscal year 2022 budget discretionary funding request (each of which promised a tripling in the SDB federal contracting goal from 5% to 15%), as well as in the fiscal year 2022 budget released on May 28, 2021.