The mission of the Department of State is to advance U.S. objectives and interests through formulating, representing, and implementing the President’s foreign policy. It promotes and protects the interests of Americans by:

• Managing diplomatic relations with other nations and international institutions.
• Promoting peace and stability in regions of vital interest.
• Promoting U.S. business interests abroad.
• Providing services to Americans living or traveling overseas.

The Department of State purchases approximately $1 billion annually in goods and services, to support its global mission. The mission of the Department of State’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization is to ensure that a fair share of our acquisitions are awarded to small, disadvantaged, and women-owned, veteran-owned, and HUBZone firms. Our procurement needs cover an array of products and services including: office furniture and furnishings; information technology hardware, software and support services; transportation, export packing and shipping services; architect/engineer and construction services; leased satellite circuit and support services; and much more. The acquisitions may be awarded to fill a one-time need, or be of a recurring nature.

The Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) locates qualified small, disadvantaged and women-owned firms in a variety of ways. We maintain close liaison with local offices of the Small Business Administration and frequently use SBA’s Internet-based database known as Pro-Net  to identify potential sources. We participate in various Federal procurement conferences around the country, sponsored by Congresspersons, trade associations, chambers of commerce, and other Federal, state and local agencies. We also provide one-to-one counseling to small businesses, upon request. Since the Department’s mission is international, we do not maintain domestic regional offices. The OSDBU is headquartered in Rosslyn, Virginia and has sole oversight for the Department’s small business advocacy program worldwide.

The Department’s OSDBU screens all new acquisitions over the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $100,000), processed by our domestic acquisitions offices, to determine their suitability for preferential procurement action (small business 8(a) or HUBZone set-asides). In this way, we continually strive to assure that small businesses maintain a fair share of the Department’s acquisition spending.

In order to lessen the need for small businesses to register in every agency’s database, State Department’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) migrated from its in-house database of vendors (VPS) to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Pro-Net.  Firms wishing to do business with the Department of State can register in Pro-Net by accessing http://pro-net.sba.gov, then selecting "register." Pro-Net makes small business profiles available to Federal, state and local government officials as well as private sector businesses looking for subcontractors or teaming arrangements. In order to maximize the usefulness of your profile to State/OSDBU and other Pro-Net users, please be thorough by completing all data fields in the Pro-Net profile.

Pro-Net is not a bidders’ mailing list application. State/OSDBU promotes use of Pro-Net extensively to contracting officers, purchasing agents and end-users as a tool to locate vendor sources. However, the Department of State does not have one central vendor database system, so vendors must still market to domestic acquisition and program officials with whom it seeks to do business. For competitive acquisitions over the simplified acquisition threshold, mailing lists are created from responses to individual FebBizOpps advertisements. Vendors can access FedBizOpps on the Internet at no cost. The URL address is http://www.fedbizopps.gov.

As part of a Government-wide initiative mandated by the Office of Management and Budget, all Federal contractors at any agency must register with the Department of Defense's Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database. All firms interested in doing business with the U.S. Department of State must be registered by October 1, 2002.  Registration is done on the Internet at http://www.ccr.gov.    It is expected that implementation of CCR will further e-Government progress and, in the future, streamline the process of competing for and being paid under Federal contracts.

If there are questions concerning the Department’s OSDBU program, please call Durie N. White, (703) 875-6822; Greg Mayberry, (703) 875-6823; Shap Drisko, (703) 875-4240, Trish Culbreth (703) 875-6881 or Judy Thomas (703) 516-1953. For matters related to overseas A&E or construction services, contact Louis Pruitt on (703) 875-6586.

Sincerely,

Durie N. White
Operations Director
Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization