Public comments close July 23, 2026

Policy Council — The federal marketplace is being rewritten: here's how to be heard before July 23

Make sure women-owned businesses are heard.

Billions in federal contracts women-owned firms compete for are at stake. The proposed FAR Overhaul would reduce the visibility, the mandatory consideration, and even the named program those firms depend on — and it takes just a few minutes to be counted.

File your comment →

▸ Prefer to listen? Hear the audio briefing

What’s happening

The Federal Acquisition Regulation — the rulebook for every federal purchase — is getting its biggest rewrite in 40 years. For women-owned firms the stakes are specific: the notices that help you find work shrink, required consideration disappears from the channel carrying most women-owned dollars, and the WOSB program loses its name in the rules. Over a thousand pages, one short window: comments close July 23.

Listen to the case

Audio briefing

New Rules Sideline Women-Owned Small Businesses

How the proposed rules pull visibility, mandatory consideration, and the program’s own name away from women-owned firms — drawn from USWCC’s filed comments and disparity study. Put it on for the commute.

Why it matters to women-owned firms

The entry point gets harder to see. Smaller opportunities — the band where women-owned firms typically win their first federal work — would still be posted, but the guaranteed 15-day head start before the solicitation disappears.
Protection is pulled from where the money is. 73% of women-owned small business dollars arrive through task and delivery orders — and required small-business consideration is removed from exactly that channel.
The program loses its name. References to the WOSB program are replaced with generic language — and a program the regulation stops naming is a program contracting officers stop steering to.
An overnight cliff for subcontractors. Primes could only count SBA-certified women-owned subcontractors toward their goals, effective immediately — veteran-owned firms got a full year to transition; women-owned firms get none.

You’re not starting from scratch

USWCC has already filed detailed comments in both dockets — backed by a full disparity study of the government’s own contracting data, industry by industry, showing women-owned firms substantially underutilized in roughly four of every five measured markets. You don’t have to make the legal or statistical case. Just tell the government what these changes would mean for your business, in your own words.

Read USWCC’s filed comments:

Principal comment on the FAR Overhaul (with the USWCC Disparity Study as Exhibit A) — read the PDF · view on Regulations.gov (also filed in FAR-2026-0002 as Comment FAR-2026-0002-0017)

Regulatory Flexibility Act (§610) comment — read the PDF · view on Regulations.gov (also filed in FAR-2026-0002 as Comment FAR-2026-0002-0020)

What you can do — in minutes

File your own public comment. Regulators must read and respond to real evidence — and the first round of comments already moved them. Your experience as a woman business owner is evidence the record doesn’t have and the government didn’t gather.
Let the tool do the heavy lifting. Pick where the changes hit your firm — including the areas specific to WOSB and EDWOSB firms — answer a few quick questions, or write it your way. It builds your comment with you, adds your endorsement of USWCC’s filed comments, and files in both dockets in a few clicks.
Make it count. Your own words, real numbers, one true story. Half a page of truth beats ten pages of anything else.

Start my comment →

Be seen. Be heard. Be counted.

Congress set a five-percent goal for women-owned small business contracting more than thirty years ago. It has been met twice. These rules would move the marketplace further from it — unless women business owners put their experience on the record now. Deadline: July 23, 2026. It takes minutes — start your comment now.

This is an independent advocacy effort of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce. The tool helps you file your own comment — it does not submit anything on your behalf.

Make Your Voice Count — FAR Overhaul

The government is rewriting the rules of the federal marketplace — the Federal Acquisition Regulation — in the biggest overhaul since 1984. The proposed rules would change how opportunities get posted, whether agencies must consider small businesses at each step, and how the work you compete for reaches the market.

Commenting works. The first round drew about 1,600 comments, and the government changed course on several major provisions. What the record needs now is what only you can supply: real facts from real small businesses. The government's own small-business impact analysis is thin — your comment is the evidence it didn't gather.

What the proposed rules would change

Finding the work

Your guaranteed 15-day head start on work in the $25,000–$45,000 range drops to zero — the solicitation can go live the same day the notice posts. Can't respond in time? The small-business reservation can be released for lack of two offers.

Task orders & big vehicles

Agencies would no longer be required to consider small businesses when placing orders under large vehicles — the channel that carries most small-business dollars — while the government pushes even more work onto exactly those vehicles.

Growing past small

Set-asides stay mandatory only for standalone contracts under $350,000 — a cap that limits your growth instead of encouraging it. Above that line, whether small business gets considered is entirely the buyer's choice.

The people & process that open doors

Mandatory market research — the trigger that makes buyers check whether small businesses can do the work, and set it aside when they can — would be eliminated. So would the role of the small-business specialists who are key to your continued access to contracts.

Award announcements go optional

Announcing the government's largest awards — now those over $5.5 million — would become the buyer's choice. Those announcements are how small firms find subcontracting work and teaming partners. Optional announcements mean subcontractors go blind.

Sole-source awards go quiet

Public notice of sole-source awards under the WOSB, HUBZone, and SDVOSB programs would be withdrawn — and the sole-source ceiling jumps to $10 million at DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard. The awards would happen in the dark.

The golden rules

Write in your own words. A thousand identical letters count as one comment; a thousand real stories count as a thousand pieces of evidence.
Be specific. Your company, city/state, industry, headcount, roughly what share of your revenue is federal.
Tell one story. Pick one or two topics you've actually lived. Half a page of truth beats ten pages of anything else.
Only true, verifiable facts. Every real story strengthens the record; anything exaggerated weakens all of us.
Support, don't attach. Your comment closes with a one-line statement of support — the tool adds it for you, so there's no need to paste the full filing.

How do you want to build your comment?

1 · To get started, identify where your firm will be most impacted

Pick every area that hits your firm — each one you choose becomes its own section of your comment.

3 · Now, build your comment

First, say where you stand — one or two sentences, in your own words:

Need a starting point? Click one, then rewrite it in your own words. This matters: regulators treat identical sentences as one form letter — your own words are what make your comment count as your independent voice.

4 · Now, put your name on it

Your comment opens with this line. Email is optional — we use it only to keep you posted on this effort.

First name

Last name

Company

Email (optional)

My firm… — finish this sentence exactly as you'd like it to read in your comment

5 · Now, file it — this is the step that counts

Review your final comment below — do all your editing here. The comment box on Regulations.gov is small; there, you only paste and submit. For each docket: Copy, then Comment now →, paste, fill the short form, submit.

Your final comment — exactly what Copy puts on your clipboard:

· Download as a file (for letterhead, or to upload as an attachment)

When you copy for the other docket, the support line switches to cite that docket automatically.

FAR Case 2026-002 Competition, planning & market research · Read the rule

FAR Case 2026-005 Publicizing opportunities · Read the rule

✓ Both dockets opened. Nicely done — your voice is on the record before the deadline.

One more move while you're on a roll: tell your members of Congress where you stand on the FAR overhaul.

In addition to your comment, a quick note to your representative and senators tells them where small businesses in their district stand on the FAR overhaul. This is separate from your comment — and you can come back to it later if you'd rather file first.

Find your representatives

This is the one step that needs your street address — it's how we match you to your House district and senators.

Full street address

Independent small-business advocacy. This site helps you file your own comment and contact your own representatives — it does not submit anything on your behalf. The organization's comments referenced above are posted on Regulations.gov in each docket.