The Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget recently released a memorandum to increase the share of contract dollars awarded to small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs). Supporting Executive Order (E.O.) 14091 “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government”, OMB has committed its interim 2024 goal to increase procurement contract spending to socially and economically disadvantaged individuals (SDBs) by 13%. Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) small businesses, service-disabled and/or veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs and VOSBs) and women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) are recognized within SDBs. The Small Business Administration (SBA) noted in FY 2022 that a record $69.9 billion was awarded to SDBs.
With OMB’s goal of 15% procurement in 2025 for SDBs, this type of investment is critical in building an equitable landscape for businesses to support federal contract work. For federal agencies, contracting SDBs also provides immense benefits:
- Enabling agile digital transformation;
- Allowing diverse talent to enrich federal services;
- Harnessing teams with targeted missions to optimize standard workflows for federal employees without interrupting them.
By lowering the threshold for access to SDBs and investing in the under-represented businesses, OBM is building a sustainable path of transformation for both government and its constituents.
MO is a SDB that was supported by OMB’s commitment to invest and is now serving as the prime contractor on VA CEDAR IDIQ, enabling increased protection, access, and secure login services to VA benefits and services for over 5 million Veterans. MO is teaming up with fellow SDB’s, Fearless and Digital Foundry, to further its impact by going for VA SPRUCE.
Learn more about this mighty trio, Team MO, here.
