Eight bills aimed at making it easier for small businesses to win federal contracts won approval Friday in the House of Representatives. But the legislation’s fate is uncertain because the measures are attached to a defense spending bill that President Barack Obama has threatened to veto.

The $642 billion defense bill passed the House by a vote of 229-120. It goes next to the Senate, which is expected to make changes in the defense spending proposals. Obama has threatened to veto the bill, which departs significantly from his proposed Pentagon budget.

The eight contracting bills were attached to the defense bill because doing so guaranteed that they’d make it to the House floor, said D.J. Jordan, spokesman for the House Small Business Committee, which sponsored the bills. He said it also made sense for them to be attached to the bill because 70 percent of federal contracts are made by the Pentagon. Thousands of bills introduced in Congress each year never make it to a full House or Senate vote.

The contracting bills include:

—The Government Efficiency Through Small Business Contracting Act, which would raise to 25 percent the amount of federal contracting dollars that should go to small businesses. Under current law, the figure is 23 percent.

—The Small Business Advocate Act, which would make it easier for the Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization in federal agencies to advocate for small business contracts.

—The Subcontracting Transparency and Reliability Act, which intends to make it easier for the government to stop large businesses from winning contracts by using small companies to front for them and would allow more small businesses to team up to win contracts.

—The Small Business Opportunity Act, which would make small business advocates part of the federal contracting process.

—The Building Better Business Partnerships Act, which would Allow the Small Business Administration to oversee 13 current mentorship programs for small businesses.

—The Small Business Protection Act, which would revamp the SBA’s size standards, or the measure it uses to determine what a small business is.

—The Contractor Opportunity Protection Act, which would overhaul the appeals process for contract bundling. Bundling is the process that brings a number of small companies together to provide goods or services to fulfill one large government contract. Often they are subcontractors of larger companies.

—The Contracting Oversight for Small Business Jobs Act, which is intended to fight fraud in contracting.

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Dove

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Garza

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Delgado

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Bounds

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Webb

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Winners of the 2012 Coastal Bend Small Business Awards. From left: James Bounds, Minority Small Business Champion of the Year; Sylvia Ann Tryon-Oliver, Women in Business Champion of the Year; Celia Garza, SBDC Counselor of the Year; Virginia Delgado, Home-Based Business Champion of the Year; Randy Webb Jr., SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year; Joe P. Dove Jr., SCORE Counselor of the Year; and Theresa Nix, Small Business Person of the Year.

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Tryon-Oliver

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Nix

CORPUS CHRISTI —
The U.S. Small Business Administration kicked off National Small Business Week by honoring Coastal Bend small businesses for their achievements.

The 2012 Coastal Bend Small Business Awards, hosted by the Del Mar College Small Business Development Center, recognized business owners who have inspired their fellow entrepreneurs and supported growth of the region’s small business community.

The winners are:

Small Business Development Center Counselor of the Year: Celia Garza

SCORE Counselor of the Year: Joe F. Dove Jr.

Home-based Business Champion of the Year: Virginia Delgado

Minority Small Business Champion of the Year: James Bounds

Women in Business Champion of the Year: Sylvia Ann Tryon-Oliver

Young Entrepreneur of the Year: Randy K. Webb Jr.

Small Business Person of the Year: Theresa Nix

Also announced on Wednesday was the winning team from the Coastal Bend Business Plan Competition.

Coastal Bend Aerospace — the team of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi students Thurman Walling, Douglas Johnson, Rishi Ahuja and Cody Lemke — won the contest and $22,000 in in-kind startup services.

The team developed a way to launch payloads into low Earth orbit using high altitude balloons.

It has been a trying few years for small businesses navigating economic recovery but all signs point to progress, said Yolanda Olivarez, Region 6 administrator for SBA.

Small businesses create about two-thirds of the country’s new jobs. The country has gained more than 4.2 million jobs through 26 consecutive months of private sector job growth, offsetting the 8 million lost to the economy, Olivarez said.

“A lot of it, I believe, has been because we’ve provided small businesses the resources that they need,” Olivarez said Wednesday morning.

Olivarez said the SBA has increased access to capital, which is key to starting and growing a business. Lending in Region 6 — which includes Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico — topped $2.7 billion in fiscal year 2011, figures show.

In the Lower Rio Grande Valley District, which includes the Coastal Bend, there were 181 loans for more than $56 million in fiscal year 2011, records show.

To date in 2012, there have been 123 loans for more than $18.4 million.

Olivarez said the businesses honored Wednesday in Corpus Christi are great examples of how vital small businesses are as the backbone of the nation’s economy. All honorees provide for themselves, their families and are involved in civic activities.

“This is the quality small businesses have,” Olivarez said. “Not only are they contributing to the job market, but they give back to the community.”

National Small Business Week has been celebrated in May by presidential proclamation since 1963. Nominations for 2013 awards can be made at www.sbawards.com.

AWARD WINNERS

Small Business Development Center Counselor of the Year: Celia Garcia

As the only Spanish-speaking counselor on staff, she handles a larger load of clients who require challenging services such as document translation. Garcia also helps clients from Mexico properly establish businesses in Corpus Christi.

SCORE Counselor of the Year: Joe F. Dove Jr.

A retired certified public accountant who co-owned accounting firm Dove & Thompson for more than 32 years, Dove since 2010 has been a volunteer counselor with SCORE — a network of experienced business professionals who offer advice to entrepreneurs.

Home-based Business Champion of the Year: Virginia Delgado

Delgado, a small-business owner herself, helps train home-based business owners with startup guidance, planning and marketing advice, including best practices with tools and resources such as social media.

Minority Small Business Champion of the Year: James Bounds

Bounds, South Texas regional business development director for Security Service Federal Credit Union, created a small-business loan program a few years ago when he was president of Horizon Credit Union.

Bounds volunteers as an advocate for minority-owned businesses and serves on several boards, including the Portland Chamber of Commerce, the Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and San Patricio Economic Development Corp.

Women in Business Champion of the Year: Sylvia Ann Tryon-Oliver

Tryon-Oliver has worked in customer service, marketing and finance in the Coastal Bend for the past 35 years and has been president and CEO of the Corpus Christi Black Chamber of Commerce since 2004.

In 2006, she developed a Saturday business seminar “SOS,” or Sisters on a Saturday, for women to network and learn about entrepreneurship.

Young Entrepreneur of the Year: Randy K. Webb Jr.

Webb owns Webb Construction, which he began at age 20 after jobs in the refineries and with Sherwin Alumina.

Webb started in construction at 13, working alongside his father and grandfather. His business took off, riding the wave of the residential housing boom. Webb now handles multimillion-dollar projects with up to 20 employees at any given time.

Webb Construction has a 100 percent on-time completion record.

Small Business Person of the Year: Theresa Nix

Nix’s Gainco Inc. has invested more than $1.2 million in environmental remediation, drilling and injection and oil field waste services equipment using SBA commercial loans. The company now has a 5,000-square-foot building and 3-acre equipment yard.

Eagle Ford Shale activity has boosted Nix’s business as Gainco provides services to oil producers, operators and tank rental companies.

Madison Development Corp. said 15 loans the nonprofit organization made to local small businesses last year, totaling $2 million, helped create 230 jobs, with 192 of them full time.

That’s an increase from 2010 when a similar loan total resulted in 150 new hires.

Nordic Consulting Partners, a health care information technology consulting company, added 73 full-time employees in 2011, the largest job increase.

MDC specializes in loans to small businesses that may have a hard time getting money from a bank.