Bill > S1103

Introduced Session

This bill would authorize local contracting units to establish women's, minority, and veteran business enterprise joint venture and set-aside programs. The "Local Public Contracts Law" has authorized local contracting units to establish minority and women's business enterprise set-aside programs since 1985, and veteran business enterprise set-aside programs since 2013, as a way to encourage the growth and competitiveness of minority, women's, and veteran businesses. This bill would amend the current local set-aside law to permit a local contracting unit to set aside a percentage of the dollar value of total procurements to be awarded as set-aside contracts to joint ventures which include one or more qualified women's, minority, or veteran business enterprises. This joint venture method, allowing traditionally disadvantaged women's, minority, and veteran-owned businesses to partner with more seasoned businesses into joint ventures, has been successfully employed in other places as a way to remove historic roadblocks that prevent disadvantaged businesses from competing in the public bidding process.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Britnee Timberlake (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document