What are small business set-asides?
The United States fulfills certain socio-economic goals through its government procurement. By law, 23% of procurement dollars must go to small businesses. The Small Business Administration (SBA) negotiates goals with the individual agencies that in the aggregate will meet this statutory mandate. • U.S. contracting officers must, with few exceptions, reserve or “set aside” all or part of a contract of any size if they reasonably expect offers at fair market prices from two or more “responsible” U.S. small businesses. • U.S. government law and regulation require contracting officers to reserve contracts estimated to be worth over US$3,000 but less than US$100,000 for U.S. small businesses unless the contracting officer does not expect to receive offers from two or more small business offers that are competitive in terms of price, quality and delivery. • Many small businesses actually win contracts through ordinary (full and open) competition.
