David W.

Garrett
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
September 25, 1992
(Phone: 202/453-8400)

RELEASE: 92-157

GOLDIN ANNOUNCES MINORITY GOALS AND ADVISORY COMMITTEE

NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin today announced new

minority contract goals and the formation of a NASA Minority
Business Resource Advisory Committee.

Speaking before the Braintrust on Science and Technology for

the Congressional Black Caucus, Goldin Said, "While broadening
our workforce, we also seek to broaden our contractor base. We
are committed to making NASA's small and disadvantaged business
program the best in the country -- an example that government and
industry will seek to emulate."

"While Congress has imposed on NASA an 8 percent goal for

contracting to small and disadvantaged businesses, NASA has upped
the ante. Congress did not set a deadline for meeting the goal,
but we have imposed one on ourselves: 1994. Between now and the
end of fiscal year 94, we plan to offer one billion dollars worth
of prime and subcontracting opportunities to minority and
woman-owned businesses" Goldin remarked.

Goldin outlined the steps that NASA will take to meet this
goal:

o Establish firm percentages for small and disadvantaged

business subcontracting as part of our prime contracts;

o Make use of small and disadvantaged business

subcontracting as an important evaluation factor in every source
selection and;
 o Reward prime contractors with special award fees when they
exceed their subcontracting goals by certain percentages.

In announcing a new minority committee, Goldin said "I'm

pleased to announce today that we are setting up a NASA Minority
Business Resource Advisory Committee. This committee will help
us identify more businesses that should be a part of the NASA
family. I invite you to nominate members for this committee.
This committee will help disprove the notion that there are no
high tech small and disadvantaged businesses. We know they're
out there and we'll find them and nurture them because we want to
work with firms that have the desire to reach for the American
dream."

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NASA Education Programs

Addressing NASA's minority education programs, Goldin said,

"Two weeks ago, Congressman Stokes issued two challenges to NASA:
work with other government agencies to increase the number of
minorities getting degrees in engineering, science and math; and
do more to help education in the major cities where the largest
numbers of minority students reside. Those are two challenges
that we accept."

Goldin emphasized several NASA minority educational programs

that are already helping to meet these challenges:

o The SHARP program that puts minority high school students

in NASA labs over a summer to work with engineers and other
professionals.

o The Spacemobile program that reaches hundreds of

thousands of elementary school students and distributes science
and math teaching materials to their teachers and;

o At the university level, NASA has doubled research grants

and other assistance to Historically Black Colleges and
Universities to $20 million over the last 8 years.

In closing, Goldin said, "Our citizens need hope and

opportunity. Common sense tells us that we can't focus
exclusively on the present. We need to make some investments
that will pay off in terms of new technology, new knowledge and
new jobs in the future -- which is exactly the kind of future
NASA represents."

-end-