Matthew Schoonover testifies before Congress on how to improve the HUBZone program

Schoonover & Moriarty Managing Member Matthew Schoonover testified Thursday before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure.

The subcommittee invited him to speak about the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) program and suggest ways for the government to ensure more contracting dollars go to HUBZone businesses.

Given that the purpose of this program is to bring economic development to areas in sore need of it—and it comes with a modest three percent governmentwide contracting goal—Schoonover told the committee that he finds the government’s “continuing failure to meet its HUBZone contracting goals to be particularly offensive.”

He provided the committee with six possible ideas the adoption of any or all would surely result an uptick in HUBZone contracting. They were: 1) Compel certain agencies to prioritize HUBZone contract awards. 2) Adopt a “once HUBZone, always HUBZone” contracting rule. 3) Expand the Highway Trust Fund to include HUBZone companies. 4) Redefine the principal office requirement in the age of remote work. 5) Help small businesses through economic challenges. And 6) Empower SBA to enhance its support to the small business community.

You can read his written testimony here or watch his testimony in its entirety below.