CEO Lynn Ann Casey Testifies to Congress on Small Businesses and Government-wide Contracts
CEO Lynn Ann Casey Testifies to Congress on Small Businesses and Government-wide Contracts
Washington, D.C., June 15, 2022 – Arc Aspicio’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lynn Ann Casey, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. The hearing “Are Governmentwide Contracts Helping or Hurting Small Contractors?” included a formal statement and testimony from Casey and other small business owners on the challenges that small businesses have as the result of Category Management (CM) policies and practices.
“While Category Management (CM) is a government-wide procurement initiative that helps the Federal Government increase procurement efficiencies, our company has seen it reduce the total number of small businesses and the number and type of opportunities that are available for small businesses to compete on,” said Casey in her testimony. “This, in turn, reduces the innovation that small businesses can offer to the Government.”
Throughout the testimony, Casey reiterated her desire for small businesses to compete. A multitude of factors, like the cost of pursuing Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) and the shift to Best-in-Class (BIC), has resulted in fewer opportunities for both new and established small businesses. Small businesses must invest in General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedules (MAS), and yet Government agencies are not providing enough opportunities to small businesses on these schedules. MAS are really where small businesses win their first prime contracts.
To create more opportunities for small businesses, Casey proposed that, “small businesses should be allowed to compete on a follow-on contract. This spurs competition, lowers prices, and fosters innovation and continuous improvement.”
Chairwoman Nydia M. Velázquez noted the number of small businesses providing common goods and services to the government since the implementation of CM declined 38%. She was interested in recommendations to improve the process and help small businesses grow more quickly.
“Established small businesses just want more opportunities to compete, including on their already existing GSA Multiple Award Schedules. Only a small number of companies have a GWAC,” said Casey. She was glad to have the opportunity to testify to the committee.
Casey is passionate about supporting new small businesses who bring innovation to supporting the Government on professional services contracts. “It is also critical that the Government allow new entrants to the market to compete and win prime contracts.”
Members of the subcommittee were eager to discuss the challenges of CM for small businesses and generated ideas on how Congress can help small businesses in the future. Casey offered the subcommittee ideas and solutions to help them explore options to help grow the supplier base including ways to broadly include small business contracts in category management metrics.
Arc Aspicio is a small business prime contractor on the GSA Human Capital and Training Solutions (HCaTS) Pool 2 contract vehicle, which allows Arc Aspicio to bid on all general solicitations in the pool and woman-owned set aside solicitations. HCaTS is a government-wide and BIC vehicle that provides a fast, flexible, and efficient way to acquire human capital, organizational performance improvement, and workforce development. HCaTS will unfortunately sunset when GSA’s OASIS+ contract comes online, reducing the number of small businesses with BICs.
Contact Information
Lynn Ann Casey
Chief Executive Officer
lac@arcaspicio.com
1.703.465.2060
About Arc Aspicio
Arc Aspicio enhances the future of our nation by creating bold ideas and bringing them to life. A consulting and solutions company, Arc Aspicio solves problems by applying our integrated capabilities in strategy, design, data, human capital, behavioral science, and technology. The company passionately pursues our vision to be the hub of creativity where people take action to change the world. To do this, employees collaborate with clients and partners to create solutions using a human-centered approach. Innovation is not possible without action. The company focuses on strategy first, then takes a hands-on approach implementing ideas to achieve results. Join Arc Aspicio and our Strategy Innovation Lab (SILab) by creating and sharing ideas to inspire people to change the world. Follow us on Twitter @ArcAspicio @SILabDC and learn more at www.arcaspicio.com.
