Facing a Jan. 19 deadline to finalize fiscal year 2018 funding, Congress has the choice to pass a comprehensive spending plan or resort to a temporary fix called a “continuing resolution,” a tactic that funds the government at 2017 levels but doesn’t allow for spending changes. Lawmakers used this measure three times in 2017 to keep the government’s lights on. While perhaps the easy solution in hyper-partisan Washington, this pattern of kicking the can down the road has serious consequences for many — especially for women government contractors, a group of small business owners the government has pledged to help.
More than 20 years ago, the government set a goal of granting at least 5 percent of its small business contracts to women-owned companies — a modest objective, considering the growing ranks of female entrepreneurs. Sadly, the government has hit that target only once. Women-owned businesses now number 10 million, or more than a third of U.S. firms. Yet statistically, they are practically shut out of the competitive world of federal contracting.
