Federal government agencies propound small business contracting goals that guide other agencies with regard to how much of their contracting dollars should be awarded to small businesses. The SBA conducts an annual review and issues a scorecard that grades each applicable agency on how fully they met their small business contracting goals.
Although the President may set a particular small business percentage goal for a given year, the Small Business Act, 15 USC 644(g)(2), establishes mandatory floors for contracting goals. Under President Biden, the goal for small, disadvantaged business contracting (i.e., entities in the SBA’s 8(a) program and self-certified small disadvantaged businesses) was set at 15% for 2025.
President Trump’s administration has issued new small business contracting goals for 2025, with an overall small business contracting goal of 23% and 5% for small, disadvantaged businesses. Any reduction in small business contracting goals could result in a reduction in the use of small business and/or 8(a) program set-aside procurements.
