FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
WASHINGTON
OFFICE 0'- 
THE CHAIRMAN
July 14,2010
The Honorable Judy Chu, Ph.D.
Chairwoman
CAPAC Economic Development Task Force
U.S. House of Representatives
2421 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairwoman Chu:
Thank you for your letter regarding contracting and procurement activities with respect to
minority-owned firms. I appreciate your interest in this area and have asked the Managing
Director to answer the questions you raise in your letter. His response is attached.
If you have any remaining concerns, or if I may be of further assistance, please do not
hesitate to contact me.
.~-----.
Sincerely,
OFFICE OF
THE CHAIRMAN
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
WASHINGTON
July 14,2010
The Honorable Judy Chu, Ph.D.
Chairwoman
CAPAC Economic Development Task Force
U.S. House of Representatives
2421 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairwoman Chu:
Thank you for your letter regarding contracting and procurement activities with respect to
minority-owned finns. I appreciate your interest in this area and have asked the Managing
Director to answer the questions you raise in your letter. His response is attached.
If you have any remaining concerns, or if r may be of further assistance, pleasc do not
hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
~-_..-- .
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
July 14,2010
The Honorable Judy Chu, Ph.D.
Chair, CAPAC Economic Development Task Force
U.S. House of Representatives
2421 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 205 15
Attention: Lelaine Bigelow
Dear Chairwoman Chu:
Chairman Genachowski has asked my staffto compile the information to respond
to the "CAPAC Economic Development Task Force 2010 Questionnaire" that you sent to
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission). We appreciate the
opportunity to discuss the FCC's small business and minority owned business contracting
practices with you and the Congressional Asian Paci fic American Caucus.
At the outset, please let me assure you that the FCC is very interested in ensuring
that it considers small and minority owned businesses when it performs market research to
identify potential contractors as well as when it awards contracts.
While we do not specifically track all ofthe inforn1ation described in your
questionnaire, we can provide you with some information about our small business and
minority owned business contracting efforts for Fiscal Year 2009. Below are some
statistics concerning our contracting activities during Fiscal Year 2009.
• According to the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), during FY 2009,
the FCC had over 1340 contracting actions for total contracting dollars of
$137.7 million.
o Ofthese contracting actions, over 860 actions or $56.8 million dollars went
to small businesses. FurthemlOre, approximately:
• $10.3 million dollars went to Small Disadvantaged Businesses;
• $12.6 million went to Woman Owned Small Businesses;
• $8.7 million went to HUBZone Businesses;
• $26.6 million went to Veteran Owned Small Businesses;
• $13.7 million went to Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small
Businesses; and
• $8.4 million went to 8(a) Firms.
o Finally, the FCC issued over 220 contracting actions to Minority Owned
firn1s totaling approximately $17.7 million.
The FCC has taken steps during FY 2010 to continue its small business contracting
efforts, and in some ofour GSA Schedule competitive procurements we have included a
preference for small business as part ofthe evaluation criteria. In addition, during FY
20 I0, we have placed an emphasis on issuing requests for infornlation through
www. ledbizppps. ov for our non-GSA Schedule purchases as a source ofadditional
market research to identify opportunities for socio-economic set asides.
Also, you referenced our work pursuant to the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) in your leller. We wanted to mention that during the
procurement process for our Recovery Act funded outreach and assistance contracts for the
Digital Television (DTV) transition, the FCC used a process ofcascading set-asides to
make the awards. This process was designed to favor small businesses. Awards were
made on a competitive basis first to responsible certified HUBZone small business
concerns. Additional awards were then made on a competitive basis to responsible eligible
small business concerns. Ifthese contract awards did not meet the Commission's needs
across all geographic areas for DTV outreach, additional awards were then made on a full
and open competition basis. The emphasis was first and foremost on small businesses for
these outreach and assistance contracts.
Lastly, I would like to point out that the FCC is one of the only if not the only
agency that has made permanent office space available for its employees' Chapter of the
Federal Asian Pacific American Council.
Please feel free to contact me at (202) 418 - 1919 or Dan Daly, my Chiefof Staff,
at (202) 418 - 1832 ifyou have any questions about this response.
Sincerel ,
Steven VanRoekel
Managing Director