Latino Voices
Huff Post
Carmen Ortiz-McGhee
Vice President of Investor Relations, Mayfield Gentry Realty Advisors
Posted: 10/29/11 11:03 AM ET
So as my career choices would belie, I am a passionate advocate for ethnically diverse-owned businesses. I believe in their ability to deliver excellence and enhanced efficiency, I believe in the importance of their success and vibrancy to the communities in which they operate and to the nation's economic health as a whole. And the statistics bear that out.
According to the Minority Business Development Agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce, people of diverse ethnicity are starting businesses at twice the national average, with women-owned businesses in that category leading the charge. This is important because those companies have also proven that they have a propensity for hiring a diverse labor base as well.
Full Story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carmen-ortizmcghee/emerging-manager-programs_b_1037397.html
Showing posts with label women-owned business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label women-owned business. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Monday, August 16, 2010
New rules may help women-owned firms get federal contracts
latimes.com
The guidelines aimed at getting women-owned businesses the minimum 5% of government contracts initially mandated in 1994 will focus on 83 industries, including residential construction.
By Cyndia Zwahlen
August 16, 2010
In 1994, Congress passed a law requiring that a minimum of 5% of the money spent on government contracts go to the nation's businesses that are majority-owned by women.That was great news for women who believed they had never received a fair share of those contracts.But the government didn't reach that mandated goal, and six years later Congress passed the Equity in Contracting for Women Act to give women-owned businesses more traction getting federal contracts.That program was never implemented. Disagreements, including a lawsuit, held it up, and advocates for the businesses accused federal officials of foot-dragging. The closest the government ever came to meeting the goal was 3.4% in fiscal 2008. Recently, however, there was new hope that the full 5% could finally become a reality. New rules for a Small Business Administration program to get contracts to women-owned businesses are going through final review by the agency.Karen Mills, head of the SBA, told a congressional committee last month that it's almost ready to go live.
Full Story: latimes.com/business/la-fi-smallbiz-women-20100816,0,6954880.story
The guidelines aimed at getting women-owned businesses the minimum 5% of government contracts initially mandated in 1994 will focus on 83 industries, including residential construction.
By Cyndia Zwahlen
August 16, 2010
In 1994, Congress passed a law requiring that a minimum of 5% of the money spent on government contracts go to the nation's businesses that are majority-owned by women.That was great news for women who believed they had never received a fair share of those contracts.But the government didn't reach that mandated goal, and six years later Congress passed the Equity in Contracting for Women Act to give women-owned businesses more traction getting federal contracts.That program was never implemented. Disagreements, including a lawsuit, held it up, and advocates for the businesses accused federal officials of foot-dragging. The closest the government ever came to meeting the goal was 3.4% in fiscal 2008. Recently, however, there was new hope that the full 5% could finally become a reality. New rules for a Small Business Administration program to get contracts to women-owned businesses are going through final review by the agency.Karen Mills, head of the SBA, told a congressional committee last month that it's almost ready to go live.
Full Story: latimes.com/business/la-fi-smallbiz-women-20100816,0,6954880.story
Friday, May 21, 2010
City IG says minority, women firms shorted 15 percent on contracts
Chicago Tribune
May 20, 2010
Posted by John Byrne at 2:08 p.m.
Minority- and women-owned businesses were paid $19 million less than they were supposed to get under city contracts two years ago because of widespread fraud, abuse and mismanagement of the city's affirmative action program, according to a report released today by the city inspector general’s office.That represented a 15 percent shortfall during 2008, the report stated. If that kind of shortfall were extended over 15 years, starting in 1995, minority- and women-owned businesses would have lost $400 million, it concluded.
Full Story: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/05/city-ig-says-minority-women-firms-shorted-15-percent-on-contracts.html
May 20, 2010
Posted by John Byrne at 2:08 p.m.
Minority- and women-owned businesses were paid $19 million less than they were supposed to get under city contracts two years ago because of widespread fraud, abuse and mismanagement of the city's affirmative action program, according to a report released today by the city inspector general’s office.That represented a 15 percent shortfall during 2008, the report stated. If that kind of shortfall were extended over 15 years, starting in 1995, minority- and women-owned businesses would have lost $400 million, it concluded.
Full Story: http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/05/city-ig-says-minority-women-firms-shorted-15-percent-on-contracts.html
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Female senators ask SBA to fix women's program
Pacific Business News
Monday, September 29th 2008
All 16 female U.S. senators signed a letter asking the Small Business Administration to either improve or withdraw a proposed regulation establishing a new federal contracting program for women-owned businesses.
The SBA's proposed rule would set aside contracts for women in only four industries and would require federal agencies to find they had discriminated against women in the past. The SBA contends these restrictions are necessary in order for the program to withstand legal scrutiny.
Past court rulings have required that procurement programs benefiting certain groups should be narrowly tailored and apply only to victims of actual discrimination.
Legislation enacted in late 2000 directed the SBA to establish a program that sets aside federal contracts for women-owned businesses in industries where women have been underrepresented.
"I find it inexcusable that after wasting well over seven years before issuing any proposal whatsoever, the SBA is now apparently seeking to finalize a defective rule with few, if any, improvements," said Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the ranking Republican on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. "The SBA should either propose drastic enhancements that reflect the intent of Congress or simply allow the next administration to address this critical issue." [To read the entire story, go to: http://pacific.bizjournals.com/extraedge/washingtonbureau/archive/2008/09/29/bureau3.html?market=pacific ]
Monday, September 29th 2008
All 16 female U.S. senators signed a letter asking the Small Business Administration to either improve or withdraw a proposed regulation establishing a new federal contracting program for women-owned businesses.
The SBA's proposed rule would set aside contracts for women in only four industries and would require federal agencies to find they had discriminated against women in the past. The SBA contends these restrictions are necessary in order for the program to withstand legal scrutiny.
Past court rulings have required that procurement programs benefiting certain groups should be narrowly tailored and apply only to victims of actual discrimination.
Legislation enacted in late 2000 directed the SBA to establish a program that sets aside federal contracts for women-owned businesses in industries where women have been underrepresented.
"I find it inexcusable that after wasting well over seven years before issuing any proposal whatsoever, the SBA is now apparently seeking to finalize a defective rule with few, if any, improvements," said Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the ranking Republican on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. "The SBA should either propose drastic enhancements that reflect the intent of Congress or simply allow the next administration to address this critical issue." [To read the entire story, go to: http://pacific.bizjournals.com/extraedge/washingtonbureau/archive/2008/09/29/bureau3.html?market=pacific ]
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Women dispute legal basis for narrow set-asides
East Bay Business Times
January 28, 2008
Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief
Legal experts challenged the Bush administration's narrow approach to federal contracting set-asides for women-owned businesses, contending it has no basis in law and would doom the program to failure.
Seven years after Congress enacted the program, the Small Business Administration proposed regulations that would limit the set-asides to four industries: national security and international affairs; coating, engraving, heat treating and allied activities; household and institutional furniture, and kitchen cabinet manufacturing; and a limited set of motor vehicle dealers.
Under the proposed rule, each federal agency also would have to find evidence that it had discriminated against women-owned businesses in these industries before it could set any aside contracts.
The SBA and the Department of Justice contend the program must be narrowly targeted to stand up to legal scrutiny.
"Mere findings of disparity or underrepresentation are generally not sufficient to establish the constitutionality of a gender-based preference program," Elizabeth Papez, deputy assistant attorney general, testified at a Jan. 16 House Small Business Committee hearing. "Courts are likely to strike down such programs if the government cannot show genuine and non-hypothetical evidence of discrimination in the economic sphere in which the program will operate."
But Jennifer Brown, vice president and legal director for Legal Momentum, said the proposed rule's standard "comes out of nowhere." There are no court decisions that call for individual agencies to make these findings, much less admit they were guilty of discrimination, Brown said.
Legal Momentum is a New York City-based legal advocacy organization for women.
"It is frankly impossible to imagine any federal agency making a formal determination that it had engaged in sex discrimination in awarding government contracts," Brown said.
This would not only "embarrass the agency but presumably open it to litigation by past disappointed contractors," she said.
"I can only imagine the rush to the courthouse the next day." [To read the entire article, go to: http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/extraedge/washingtonbureau/archive/2008/01/28/bureau2.html?market=eastbay]
January 28, 2008
Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief
Legal experts challenged the Bush administration's narrow approach to federal contracting set-asides for women-owned businesses, contending it has no basis in law and would doom the program to failure.
Seven years after Congress enacted the program, the Small Business Administration proposed regulations that would limit the set-asides to four industries: national security and international affairs; coating, engraving, heat treating and allied activities; household and institutional furniture, and kitchen cabinet manufacturing; and a limited set of motor vehicle dealers.
Under the proposed rule, each federal agency also would have to find evidence that it had discriminated against women-owned businesses in these industries before it could set any aside contracts.
The SBA and the Department of Justice contend the program must be narrowly targeted to stand up to legal scrutiny.
"Mere findings of disparity or underrepresentation are generally not sufficient to establish the constitutionality of a gender-based preference program," Elizabeth Papez, deputy assistant attorney general, testified at a Jan. 16 House Small Business Committee hearing. "Courts are likely to strike down such programs if the government cannot show genuine and non-hypothetical evidence of discrimination in the economic sphere in which the program will operate."
But Jennifer Brown, vice president and legal director for Legal Momentum, said the proposed rule's standard "comes out of nowhere." There are no court decisions that call for individual agencies to make these findings, much less admit they were guilty of discrimination, Brown said.
Legal Momentum is a New York City-based legal advocacy organization for women.
"It is frankly impossible to imagine any federal agency making a formal determination that it had engaged in sex discrimination in awarding government contracts," Brown said.
This would not only "embarrass the agency but presumably open it to litigation by past disappointed contractors," she said.
"I can only imagine the rush to the courthouse the next day." [To read the entire article, go to: http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/extraedge/washingtonbureau/archive/2008/01/28/bureau2.html?market=eastbay]
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