Bill would expand contractor mentoring program

A Defense Department program that helps small, disadvantaged businesses learn the ropes of federal contracting should be expanded governmentwide, according to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., last week introduced a bill to create a governmentwide version of the Pentagon's Mentor-Protégé program, which provides incentives to big contractors to help small, disadvantaged businesses win and fulfill government contracts. The bill, S. 861, would counteract recent procurement reforms that have hurt small businesses, Bond said. "Over the last decade, some well-intentioned acquisition streamlining efforts have crowded out small businesses from federal contracts," said Bond. "However, an enhanced Mentor-Protégé program can help make small businesses competitive players in the government contracting market." The Pentagon program matches prime contractors that offer subcontracting opportunities with small disadvantaged businesses as defined in the 1953 Small Business Act. Small firms that are majority-owned by African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans or Native Americans qualify as protégés. Sixty-seven mentor firms and 129 protégés currently participate in the program, according to the Defense Department Office of Small Business and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. Program mentors provide their protégés with insight and training on how to do business with the Pentagon, ranging from assistance on contract management to long-term project design. In exchange, mentors are reimbursed for the cost of the training and can also get credit toward the subcontracting requirements of big Pentagon contracts. "The program is ideal because it is useful to big businesses and small businesses," said Scott Stanberry, a consultant for small businesses that specialize in government contracting. "It gives small businesses the expertise they need to compete for larger contracts." Bond's bill requires the Small Business Administration to develop a governmentwide mentor-protégé program that would be run by agencies. Agencies and the SBA would split the costs of operating the program, which include reimbursing mentor firms for the technical assistance they offer to protégés. Besides firms that qualify as small disadvantaged businesses, small firms owned by women, disabled veterans and small businesses located in high unemployment areas could also be protégés under the Bond bill. Although it has been operating since 1991, the Pentagon Mentor-Protégé program has few peers in civilian agencies. "Most [agencies] have never even heard of the Mentor-Protégé program," said Stanberry, who researched the Pentagon program for his 2001 book, Federal Contracting Made Easy. NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration run mentor-protégé programs, according to the Pentagon.