Improving Federal and Department of Defense Use of Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses.

摘要

The Federal Government has several policies to boost economic opportunities for service-disabled veterans. Among these is a goal to award 3 percent of its prime-contract procurement dollars to service-disabled veteran- owned small businesses (SDVOSBs). Federal agencies also have a goal to award 3 percent of subcontracting dollars to SDVOSBs. Nevertheless, federal contracting with SDVOSBs remains below this 3 percent goal, although it did increase from 1.4 percent in fiscal year (FY) 2008 to 2.7 percent in FY 2011. Similarly, the Department of Defense (DoD) has increased the number of prime-contract dollars going to SDVOSBs but has not yet reached the government-wide goal, awarding 2.0 percent of its prime-contract awards to SDVOSBs in FY 2009. As part of its commitment to this effort, DoD asked the RAND Corporation to investigate the SDVOSB procurement program. In particular, DoD's Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) asked RAND to identify barriers that SDVOSBs, the Federal Government, and DoD face in increasing the percentage of prime-contract dollars going to SDVOSBs. This report is the result of that research. In it, we assess the characteristics of service-disabled veterans that support successful business ownership, identify barriers that DoD and other federal contracting personnel have in meeting their SDVOSB prime-contract goals, and identify barriers SDVOSBs face when seeking DoD and other federal prime contracts and subcontracts. This research should be of interest to persons or organizations interested in small business, service-disabled veterans, and procurement, such as the Interagency Task Force for Veterans Small Business Development.