Government operations and workforce

Executive Order 13005: Empowerment Contracting

President: Bill Clinton

Directed development of federal procurement incentives for businesses employing residents of economically distressed communities.

Status: Revoked. Is Executive Order 13005 still in effect? No. Executive Order 13005 was revoked. See Federal Register record.

What does Executive Order 13005 do?

EO 13005 told the Commerce Secretary and procurement agencies to develop contracting incentives for qualified businesses operating in or employing residents of high-poverty census tracts, empowerment zones and enterprise communities. The government proposed and adopted procurement measures in 1997, including evaluation preferences and subcontracting incentives. The order has not been expressly revoked, but its time-specific initiative and terminology do not operate today as a separate government-wide program in the current Federal Acquisition Regulation.

Administration position: The order created procurement preferences and incentives within existing authority; it did not reserve all federal contracts in designated communities or guarantee awards to particular firms.
SignedMay 21, 1996
Baseline distress testAt least 20% census-tract poverty
Rulemaking deadlineDraft rules within 90 days

Before and after

Before the order

Federal acquisition policy lacked a coordinated empowerment-area contracting initiative.

After the order

Agencies implemented evaluation and subcontracting incentives aimed at distressed communities.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
Commerce SecretaryCoordinate program design and annual reportingOriginal implementation period
Procurement agenciesDevelop lawful evaluation and subcontracting incentivesImplemented in the 1990s
SBA and OFPPAdvise on small-business and acquisition rulesOriginal implementation period

What happened next

EO 13005 launched empowerment contracting.

A proposed government-wide implementation rule was published.

The government published implementing procurement measures.

No express revocation appeared in the official disposition table.