Major Clark, III, assistant general counsel for procurement policy for the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, has experienced similar problems. When he sees proposed regulations promulgated that could adversely affect minority businesses, his office tries to get entrepreneurs to submit comment detailing how they will be impacted. But getting them to “provide those comments to agencies so they can formalized and presented in a cohesive manner to attack the regulations is a big problem,†lamented Clark.
The Office of Advocacy also seeks research papers through which businesses can offer critical input on a broad range of issues. Although, for example, it recently put out a call for white papers on what businesses would like done in the area of procurement, he hasn’t seen any that take a look on the impact of procurement on minority business.
“I know the talent is there, but someone has to do that so we have that information going forward. We need proactive folks to do things to help us,†Clark said.