A new bill supportive of Small Business Enteprises (SBEs), Minoirty Business Enteprises (MBEs), and Women Business Enterprises (WBE) is making its way through Virginia’s state legislative body.

It is called HB 1784 Small Business Procurement Enhancement Program has been introduced by Jeion A. Ward   (D) - House District 92. 

It reads as follows, the  bill:

“..[e]stablishes the Small Business Procurement Enhancement Program (the Program) with a statewide goal of 42 percent of small business utilization in all discretionary spending by state agencies in procurement orders, prime contracts, and subcontracts. In addition, the bill (i) provides for a small business set-aside for competition among all small businesses for state agency purchases of up to $100,000 for goods, nonprofessional services, and construction and up to $80,000 for professional services and (ii) establishes certification criteria for participation in the Program by business operations on the basis of the total number of employees or annual gross receipts, averaged over the previous three years.”

The bill has been supported by Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam and as of February 5, 2021 it has been “Left in General Laws”.

The bill will lead to the opening of a new agency inside Virginia’s Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity (SBSD). It would gather demographic data and cooperate with the state’s Department of General Services to make sure all efforts are being made to achieve participation goals set out by state agencies. This can help to make sure that prime contractors in the state when carrying out state contracts are working with small, minority, and women owned businesses.

In another development, as we recently reported, the state of Virginia is also now benefiting from a new Women Business Centers (WBC) that was opened by the US Small Business Administration (SBA), as one of twenty new centers opened across the country by the federal agency.