EPA to Spend More Contracting Dollars on Disadvantaged Businesses

The EPA is pushing to spend more with small entrepreneurs in historically underserved neighborhoods, including communities of color, according to an internal email reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

Currently the Environmental Protection Agency spends 2.5% of its contract dollars with businesses located in historically under-utilized business zones as defined by the Small Business Administration, and 1.7% with small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, Janet McCabe, deputy administrator of the EPA, said in the email. Those figures fall short of the EPA’s goals of 3%, she said.

• McCabe’s email urged EPA staff to “seek out new vendors, with an eye toward growing ...