Business Journal article by Kent Hoover

The leaders of the Senate committee that oversees the Small Business Administration urged the agency to broaden its pending women's procurement program or else delay issuing final regulations for it until next year.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, and Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the committee's ranking Republican, urged the agency to "drastically rework its proposed rule" for the women's procurement program.

Legislation enacted in December 2000 directed the agency to establish federal contracting set-asides for women in industries where they have been underrepresented. After years of delay, the SBA finally issued a proposed regulation Dec. 27, 2007, that would limit the set-asides to only four industries.

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