Dec 5, 2016 2 min read

Legislation to improve federal contracting opportunities for small businesses appears close to passage in Congress, which has included the measures in a spending bill for the Defense Department for the current fiscal year. The House and Senate are working out their differences on the overall bill.

The legislation requires officials at federal agencies to step up their efforts to award contracts and subcontracts to small businesses. It requires reviews of proposed contracts to determine if more can be done to make opportunities available to small companies.

Small business contracts have been an issue for years because of concerns that agencies award contracts to large companies which do not in turn provide enough subcontracts to smaller companies. The small business committees in both the House and the Senate have also advocated that small companies be given more chances to be primary contractors.

Additionally, the spending bill contains provisions for Small Business Development Centers to give owners help in preventing hacking and other cyberattacks. The development centers are government-sponsored hubs located around the country, many on college campuses, which give free advice and training to small businesses.

The bill also includes a five-year spending authorization for the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. These programs create opportunities for technology companies to do research and development for the government, and in some cases, sell the technology they develop to others.

Congress is following its pattern of the past few years of including contracting legislation in defense spending bills.

Many companies want to use Twitter, but aren’t sure how to compose the most effective tweets. They can get some help at an online seminar sponsored by SCORE, which offers free advice to small businesses. It will be held Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Learn more and register at http://bit.ly/2gZvrec .