To date, the federal government has awarded more than $15.6 billion worth of contracts to assist in rescue, relief and recovery efforts related to Hurricane Katrina.
Nearly 29 percent of those government contracts were awarded to small businesses, according to preliminary data. This exceeds the federal government's 23 percent prime contracting goal by almost 6 percent. Of the 29 percent:
- 7.9 percent has gone to Small Disadvantaged Businesses;
- 4.3 percent has gone to women-owned businesses;
- 1.3 percent has gone to HUBZone firms.
Nearly 22 percent of contracts, or $3.4 billion, went to local businesses of all sizes in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Of that amount, approximately 57 percent went to local small businesses.
In New Orleans, 58 percent of SBA's district office portfolio of 8(a) firms received government contracts.
SBA has made it a priority to facilitate and identify small business contracting opportunities. Soon after Katrina struck, five procurement center representatives, under the leadership of a senior official with significant procurement experience, were assigned to work with federal agencies to find relief and reconstruction contracts and subcontracting opportunities for Gulf Coast businesses.
SBA was a partner with the Department of Commerce and other agencies in establishing and operating the Hurricane Contracting Information Center (HCIC), a portal for small businesses to access contract assistance and information. SBA has now taken over responsibility for operations going forward. To date, the HCIC has fielded tens of thousands of calls from interested businesses and the website has had nearly 57,000 hits.
More than $650 million in contracts has been awarded to businesses that received assistance through SBA's Business Matchmaking initiative, a six-city tour the agency coordinated to help small businesses in the stricken areas.
SBA remains committed to ensuring that small businesses receive fair opportunities to help in therelief and reconstruction efforts of the Gulf Coast region.
Washington - April 12, 2007
Release Number: 07-18
Contact: Sean Rushton (202) 205-6882
Information courtesy of the Small Business Administration.
