By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

GUAM Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo has welcomed the reforms being proposed in the House of Representatives to help the small business sector.
During the debate on H.R. 1873, or the Small Business Fairness in Contracting Act, Bordallo said that America’s small businesses deserve fairer treatment in the federal marketplace.
The bill would reform the federal contracting system so that all businesses, including America’s 26 million small businesses, have a better shot at winning federal contracts.
“Small businesses on Guam will benefit from these improvements,” Bordallo said.
Today, the federal marketplace is worth upwards of $380 billion, and is the world’s largest buyer of goods and services.
The Department of Defense alone controls approximately 70 percent of the federal government’s contracting dollars. On Guam, the Department of Defense controls the vast majority of the federal marketplace.
According to Bordallo, the amount of contracts issued by the Department of Defense for work on Guam will increase significantly in the years ahead as a result of the planned increase in the military presence on the island.
“I would like to see our small businesses on Guam benefit from the future military build-up. In the last Congress, I successfully amended the HUBZone program so that all of Guam’s businesses can take advantage of this preference in federal contracting. H.R. 1873 will also have a positive impact on small businesses,” the congresswoman said.
H.R. 1873 would amend the Small Business Act to, among other things, revise and add to Small Business Administration requirements concerning contract bundling; increase the government-wide goal for participation by small businesses in federal procurement; include overseas contracts in such goal; and require certain small businesses to annually recertify compliance with maximum small business size standards for eligibility for SBA-awarded contracts and subcontracts.
The legislation also contains provisions that would direct the SBA administrator to develop and maintain a database to assist small businesses in marketing to large corporations that have not achieved their small business goals; contact registered small businesses regarding the likelihood of federal contracting opportunities; prescribe regulations governing SBA review of subcontracting plans; ensure that whenever a small business loses a protest over its size, a notification is placed adjacent to the listing for that business in the Central Contractor Registry; and ensure a biannual review of such Registry to purge businesses no longer considered small businesses.
“Guam’s small businesses can find inspiration in our small business of the year recent winners, including Lucy Alcorn in 2007, Joey Crisostomo in 2006 and George Lai in 2005. They have shown that entrepreneurship and innovation are alive and well on Guam, and that our small businesses are ready to compete for the federal procurement dollar,” Bordallo said.