Sponsors (4)
Official title: To establish requirements relating to certification of small business concerns owned and controlled by women for certain purposes, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 3, 2025 by Nydia M. Velázquez · Last progress June 4, 2025
The bill strengthens verification and oversight of WOSB procurement goals—improving measurement and transparency—but shifts costs and short‑term eligibility risks onto small women‑owned firms and strains SBA and agency capacity during implementation.
Women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) that obtain SBA or approved certifier recognition will be counted in federal WOSB procurement goals, creating a clearer, verifiable pipeline for measuring and enforcing those goals.
Some currently self‑certified firms will be treated as deemed certified during a transition period, reducing immediate disruption to agencies' WOSB goal calculations and giving firms time to complete formal certification.
The SBA must report and provide quarterly briefings to congressional small business committees on certification processing and impacts, increasing oversight, transparency, and congressional visibility into program performance.
Some currently self‑certified WOSBs that fail to secure formal certification could lose eligibility for inclusion in federal WOSB goal calculations, reducing contracting opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
Smaller firms may face added time and administrative costs to obtain formal certification, imposing financial and bureaucratic burdens without providing additional implementation funding.
Agencies could temporarily undercount WOSB participation during the transition if many firms remain uncertified, complicating procurement planning and distorting short‑term goal tracking.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Only SBA-certified WOSBs count toward federal WOSB procurement goals; self-certified firms are excluded after a transition and subject to SBA rules.
Changes how Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) count toward federal WOSB procurement goals by excluding firms that are only self-certified and including only those certified under the SBA standard at 15 U.S.C. 637(m)(2)(E). It creates a transition rule that temporarily treats certain currently self-certified firms as "deemed certified" for goal-calculation until a formal SBA determination is made, requires SBA to issue implementing regulations within one year, and mandates regular briefings to relevant congressional committees. No new funding is authorized.