CONTRACTOR OUTREACH PLANNED

[GROUP PRESS 202-260-4355]

!/CONTRACTOR OUTREACH PLANNED/SCROLL
FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2001

CONTRACTOR OUTREACH PLANNED

Information on the ethnic and racial composition of companies receiving EPA contracts will be gathered on a
voluntary basis, following recent enactment of a new procurement policy. Beginning on January 4, EPA is collecting
this information in an attempt to identify whether specific ethnic and racial minorities are under-represented in
the Agency's pool of contractors, and to attempt to ensure that the competitive procurement process is open to all
responsible vendors. This effort was announced by EPA in the Federal Register on December 5, 2000, creating a new
contract clause called "Business Ownership Representation." The clause requests contract recipients to voluntarily
identify the racial and ethnic categories most applicable to the owners of the business. EPA intends to utilize
the collected business ownership information to target outreach activities toward greater participation in the
contracting process by all qualified vendors. The collected information will not be utilized for award decisions,
but rather, to assist the Agency in determining where outreach efforts should be focused.

R-22 ###