Win US Government Contracts Using Economic Stimulus Spending Data

On July 8, Onvia CEO Mike Pickett submitted testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, at the Third Stimulus Oversight Hearing to Examine Challenges Facing States, Local Governments. He spoke about the difficulties US government agencies have in quickly and completely providing transparency into their spending and contract awards.

Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act doesn’t require reporting on US Government contracting activity until 100 days after the contract is awarded, Americans are having a difficult time assessing whether or not the stimulus has begun to work in the US economy. In Pickett’s testimony, he said,

“Due to the speed and lack of real-time transparency of the spending, it is likely that the funds will mostly go to existing large government contractors. Yet, the largest job losses have occurred in small businesses (it has been reported that small businesses employ greater than 50% of all Americans and have suffered over 80% of the job losses). If we want to save the small businesses of America, we need to give them real-time access to the ARRA contracting opportunities in an easy to use manner. Our goal should be to help small business owners and their employees save their jobs and their businesses by giving them real-time information on RFPs and awards, so they can compete for work created from the ARRA spending. Informing them of these opportunities 100 days after an award has been made is too late and in fact in most cases a sub-contractor needs to participate in the bid with the prime contractor in order to be successful.” (To read Pickett’s full testimony, go to http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20090707151238.pdf.)

So how can increased visibility into stimulus spending help small businesses win US government contracts? Right now, stimulus funding is still trickling down into state- and municipal-level government agencies, and projects that have gotten approval for stimulus funding are still being announced. Small businesses need to track this approval process in order to find out about contracts they might be eligible for as early as possible.

Preparing to Pursue US Government Contracts

Once a project’s approval has been announced, small businesses can start preparing to pursue the contract – even before the official RFP goes out. Preparing to pursue the contract may mean investigating the government agency’s purchasing history to uncover trends; contacting key agency personnel to find out more about the project; researching, and preparing competitive statements against, potential competitors; and/or contacting related businesses to discuss partnering or subcontracting opportunities.

The sooner a business can find out about US government contracts, the more prepared it can be to win them – this is true whether pursuing a regular government contract or a stimulus-funded contract (which will only make up about 2% of total government spending this year). Using recovery.org, you can start tracking economic recovery spending in your area today.

Anonymous said,

September 12, 2009 @ 10:18 am

As referenced in the article, how are “projects that have gotten approval for stimulus funding are still being announced” found. I’m trying to get ahead of the solicitation/RFP release curve as a SMB federal contractor.

Thank you.

editor said,

October 23, 2009 @ 12:50 pm

You can track economic recovery projects as they are funded, announced and awarded on http://www.Recovery.org. If you’re looking for an easy way to find projects before the RFP is announced, Onvia can send you advance notice and brand-new RFP announcements, tailored to your business, in your email inbox daily.

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