Sponsors (2)
The bill helps preserve and clarify federal contracting credit for women‑owned small businesses and improves oversight of the certification process, but it creates potential certification burdens and risks that some firms will lose credit later while implementation could be delayed or underfunded.
Women-owned small businesses (including those self-certified before the effective date) will generally continue to count toward federal contracting goals, preserving access to set-aside opportunities while formal certifications are processed.
The bill increases oversight and predictability of the WOSB certification process by requiring quarterly briefings to small business committees and setting a one‑year deadline for the SBA to issue implementing regulations, which should improve transparency on demand, processing timelines, costs, and reduce regulatory ambiguity for applicants.
Some self‑certified WOSBs that receive temporary credit now could later fail to obtain formal certification and thus lose counting toward contracting goals, reducing future contracting opportunities for those firms.
New or tightened certification requirements may impose administrative and financial burdens on small firms seeking WOSB status, potentially disadvantaging resource‑constrained businesses.
Delays tied to the bill's effective-date timing and the CUTGO (no new appropriations) constraint could slow implementation and limit SBA's ability to add staff or systems, meaning benefits may be delayed or harder to realize without reprioritizing existing funds.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Counts only SBA-certified WOSBs (not self-certified ones) for federal WOSB contracting goals, with limited transitional treatment and delayed implementation after SBA rulemaking.
Requires that only Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) that have been officially certified by the Small Business Administration under the specified statutory certification process be counted toward federal WOSB contracting goals, excluding self-certified firms. Provides temporary treatment for self-certified firms that applied for certification before the law takes effect so they are treated as certified for goal calculations until the SBA makes a determination. Directs the SBA to issue implementing regulations within one year, sets the effective date to the first day after the end of the second fiscal year following issuance of those regulations, mandates regular briefings to House and Senate small business committees with specified metrics, and specifies that no new appropriations are authorized for implementation.
Introduced February 25, 2025 by Nydia M. Velázquez · Last progress February 25, 2025