Small businesses in certain parts of southeast Nebraska seeking to buy and sell to the federal government soon will be able to take advantage of a program to successfully bid for contracts.
Thanks to a redesignation Oct. 1, Auburn and Nemaha County will be qualified as a Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone). This program helps small businesses in urban and rural communities gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities. SBA’s HUBZone program is in line with the efforts of both the Administration and Congress to promote economic development and employment growth in distressed areas by providing access to more federal contracting opportunities.
The program’s benefits for HUBZone-certified companies include competitive bidding for contracts, a 10 percent price evaluation preference in full and open contract competitions, as well as subcontracting opportunities. Moreover, the federal government has a goal of awarding three percent of all dollars for federal prime contracts to HUBZone-certified small business concerns.
The SBA regulates and implements the HUBZone program by determining which businesses are eligible to receive HUBZone contracts, maintains a listing of qualified HUBZone small businesses that federal agencies can use to locate vendors, adjudicates protests of eligibility to receive HUBZone contracts and reports to the Congress on the program’s impact on employment and investment in HUBZone areas.
Auburn and Nemaha County were redesignated based on the high rate of unemployment in that area.
For guidance in southeast Nebraska on bidding for federal contracts, please contact Julie Ann Wilhelm at the Auburn Procurement Technical Assistance Center at 402-414-5077 or jwilhelm@unomaha.edu.
Updates to HUBZones are public and anyone can subscribe to them. Consider subscribing to HUBZone News.
As always, small businesses and economic resource providers can contact the SBA helpdesk at hubzone@sba.gov with your questions. You may also call in to the office hours. Details are on our website at www.sba.gov/hubzone.
