Sponsors (4)
The bill increases access, visibility, and development support for veteran‑owned small businesses—boosting opportunities for veterans—while raising administrative costs, risking reduced competition or higher prices for taxpayers, and potentially excluding unverified small veteran firms without careful implementation and oversight.
Veteran-owned small businesses will gain materially increased access to federal contracting (sole-source awards, restricted competitions, set-asides, and explicit SBA program eligibility), increasing revenue opportunities for veterans and their firms.
Veteran-owned firms become eligible for SBA business-development supports (mentor‑protégé, Best‑in‑Class designations, scorecard recognition), improving their competitive readiness and long-term growth prospects.
Required SBA database listing, disaggregated reporting, and tracking of veteran awards will increase transparency and program integrity, making award patterns verifiable and helping reduce fraudulent claims.
Limiting some procurements to veteran-owned firms reduces competition and could increase contract prices, creating higher costs for taxpayers.
Expanded reporting, monitoring, new eligibility verification, and category implementation will raise administrative burden and implementation costs for federal agencies and the SBA.
Smaller or newly formed veteran firms not yet listed in the required SBA database will be excluded from these opportunities until verified, delaying benefits for those veterans.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Creates a veteran-owned small business category, authorizes veteran-only sole-source and set-aside contracts, sets a 5% governmentwide contracting goal, and requires expanded reporting.
Official title: Amend the Small Business Act to establish a goal for participation by small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans in procurement contracts, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 3, 2026 by Timothy Patrick Sheehy · Last progress March 3, 2026
Creates a new statutory category for veteran-owned and -controlled small businesses and gives contracting officers new authorities to award sole-source contracts and limit competition to veteran-owned firms when conditions are met. Establishes a governmentwide contracting goal of at least 5% of prime and subcontract dollars for veteran-owned small businesses and requires expanded, disaggregated reporting on awards to that category. Adds the new category into multiple Small Business Act programs and procurement processes, updates mentor-protégé and subcontracting rules to include veteran-owned concerns, and requires firms and veteran owners to be listed in a specified database to be eligible for the new authorities.