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Small Business News

Small Business News

News | June 14, 2024

DoD Leaders Brief Congressional Staff on Industrial Base and Small Business Issues

By Suzanne Zurn Office of Small Business Programs

Arlington, VA  –  

In an unclassified briefing last week to 84 Congressional staffers, including House Armed Services Committee staff, Senate Small Business Committee staff, Legislative Directors, and Military Legislative Assistants, Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, PhD, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy; and Mr. Farooq Mitha, Director of the DoD Office of Small Business Programs, provided an overview of the current threat environments facing the defense industrial base and small business industrial base, existing plans and programs to address these issues, and a vision for where the Department is going.

Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy; and Mr. Farooq Mitha, Director of the DoD Office of Small Business Programs briefed Congressional Legislative Assistants last week.

Key resources relevant to this briefing are available to the public at these links:

 

DoD Small Business News

OSBP and NIST Partner for Small Businesses

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP), the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense on small business matters, and  U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program (MEP) signed a memorandum of agreement on May 02, 2021 to collaborate on strengthening the national security of the small business industrial base.

The new partnership links two DOD organizations with a common mission to assist small businesses and  to achieve shared objectives:

  • Provide training and technical support to small-and-medium U.S. manufacturers engaged or planning to engage with the defense sector.
  • Promote and co-sponsor joint training events beneficial to national security, with an emphasis on cybersecurity for defense manufacturing.
  • Establish direct and consistent relationships at multiple organizational levels within both Parties to document and share complementary assistance best practices.  
  • Develop clear objectives, benchmarks and goals to measure success, added value, and synergy of collaborations between NIST MEP and OUSD(A&S) OSBP.

The OSBP and NIST partnership enables more DOD collaboration and support of small and medium manufacturers (SMMs). They will Collaborate to support the ongoing development and security of the Defense and Industrial Base.

This partnership will combine OSBP’s expertise in leveraging small businesses to close capability gaps for our armed forces with the MEP National Network.  The MEP operational base provides an opportunity for OUSD(A&S) OSBP to serve as a resource for the MEP Program of MEP Centers engages defense sector and defense-relevant manufacturing clients to promote and provide technologies, prototypes and products for National Security missions.