U.S. Government Aid to Business

This fact sheet provides information on federal government programs that give management and technical assistance to businesses. GAO (1) identifies, given the limited time constraints of the assignment, as many federal government programs that provide such help as was possible; (2) briefly describes these programs and identified the target customers that these programs were designed to serve; and (3) reports the current funding levels for these programs.

GAO found that: (1) there are 24 federally sponsored programs that primarily provide management and technical assistance to businesses; (2) these programs offer a variety of services to businesses, including accounting assistance, business plan development, proposal and bid preparation, marketing, worker training, and assistance in implementing improved technology; (3) the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Commerce had the largest number of management and technical assistance programs for fiscal year (FY) 1994; (4) there are also business assistance programs in the Departments of Defense, Energy, Labor, Transportation, and the Treasury; (5) government agencies that have procurement authority generally have an Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (0SDBU) to assist in the development of small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals; (6) OSDBU primarily focus on helping companies procure contracts with the federal government through various outreach efforts including conferences, procurement fairs, and business strategy sessions; and (7) proposed FY 1994 funding levels for the programs varied widely, ranging from a high of $71 million for SBA Small Business Development Centers to a low of $1.5 million for Labor's Microenterprise Grant Program.