Agriculture Secretary Links Small Business Goals to Larger Agenda

Among the top-performing agencies in last week’s record-setting small business contracting score card was the Agriculture Department, whose grade of “A” is touted by its secretary as the result of a focus on rural America, smart spending and a commitment to minority rights.

Tom Vilsack, in an interview with Government Executive, said his department’s achievement of channeling nearly 54 percent of its $5.2 billion in acquisition spending to small business stems from the fact that “we do a lot of business in rural areas on behalf of rural Americans, so we’re sensitive to the important role of small businesses and making sure we use our resources effectively.”

He linked each of the Small Business Administration’s contracting categories to Agriculture’s larger agenda as well as the Obama administration’s push for meeting the mandatory goal of 23 percent of federal contract dollars going to eligible small businesses—in Agriculture’s case for purchases such as lab equipment, gloves, lubricants and chemicals.

“Only 15 percent of the population is rural, but 35 percent to 40 percent of the military comes from there,” Vilsack said, underlining service-disabled veteran-owned business as a key constituency.

“If you’re dealing with farmers, you recognize the role that women play in agriculture, so we’ve invested a substantial amount in women-owned businesses,” he said. The firm of Rhodeside & Harwell, which has a contract for gardening and design work at the National Arboretum, he said, “has expanded significantly since we started doing business with them. They’re not a large corporation, just a couple of folks that started it and now it’s 30 people.”

Agriculture is also “interested in making sure we work with minority-owned business, in part because of the history of USDA,” Vilsack said. After he was sworn in in 2009, he heard a suggestion from former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman that he focus on civil rights, “so we’ve made a concerted effort on minority businesses, and we continue to meet or exceed targets.”

The score card shows that in prime contracting to small business, Agriculture’s scores went up in three categories and stayed about the same in two, though in subcontracting its scores went down in several categories. “The strength of our small business participation is credited to the 11 buying agencies, with which the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization collaborates on an ongoing basis,” the agency said in response to SBA’s score card. “With the support of USDA’s senior leadership, we conduct ongoing training for small businesses, contracting officers and program managers.”

Vilsack also credited President Obama and SBA administrator Maria Contraras-Sweet (along with predecessor Karen Mills) with keeping up the pressure on behalf of small business. “The president during at least two or three Cabinet meetings I have attended has emphasized the need to do business with small businesses,” he said.

But Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget request for a hike in farm spending is crimped by sequestration, Vilsack said, noting that his budget today is below fiscal 2010 numbers. “My view is that sequestration is an inappropriate policy for running a federal government, and Obama has been quite clear that continuing the sequester in the budget while increasing defense spending without a corresponding increase in non-defense spending is not acceptable to him, and he’s right.”

Vilsack is proud of the $1.4 billion in savings through efficiencies Agriculture has achieved with its Blueprint for Stronger Service, which consolidated some offices while avoiding layoffs and furloughs. “But ironically, there are times when Congress makes it harder to save money. The budget today prevents me from closing any office at USDA, even though there are 31 offices with no full-time employees working,” he said. “There’s an expense to rent, and not a whole lot of meaningful work, but Congress says we can’t close them.”  

Vilsack added: “I say be consistent. If you want government to operate like a business, give me the tools or resources to do everything you want me to do.” Congress, he said, “gives less in resources but wants more work.”

A handful of lawmakers appreciate his agency’s work in husbanding resources and aiding small businesses, Vilsack said, mentioning Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., as one. “But I can’t say the appropriations committee is really focused on it. On Capitol Hill, they tell you when they’re not pleased, but not often when they are.”