Department of Homeland Security’s Efforts to Promote Opportunities for Underserved Markets

The Department of Homeland Security’s effort to promote opportunities for underserved markets (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business and certified HUBZone small business) exemplifies a best practice.  In December 2007, the DHS Acting Chief Procurement Officer and the OSDBU Director issued a joint memorandum to the Department’s Heads of Contracting Activities (HCA) in each of the DHS components that provided an assessment of the DHS small business accomplishments for FY 2007.

While maintaining their commitment to the 8(a) program with the DHS/SBA Partnership Agreement, DHS determined it was necessary to educate the DHS acquisition professionals on recent information regarding the SDVOSB and HUBZone programs. Each HCA was asked to provide a specific number of projects that would be set aside for SDVOSB and HUBZone firms in FY 2008.  The number assigned to each component was based on the following: (1) if they exceeded the goal of 3 percent, they were asked to provide 2 projects; (2) if they came close to the goal, they were asked to provide 3 projects; and (3) if they failed to meet the goal, they were asked to provide 5 projects.

A list of these projects is posted on the DHS website (www.dhs.gov/openforbusiness) with points of contact for additional information