| /www.umcp.org/fileupload/uploads/fam3.gif] | Feminist Activists Of Maryland (formerly Women's Circle) is the undergraduate feminist activist group at the University of Maryland, College Park. We are affiliated with the Department of Women's Studies and the Feminist Majority Foundation. However, we act in solidarity with other progressive groups on campus, fraternites, sororites, and multiethnic groups to raise awareness among the campus community about important gender issues and campaign against social injustice and inequality. |
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umdfam@yahoo.comJanuary 12, 2006
Women-owned small businesses across the country are victorious in U.S. District Court
Judge Reggie B. Walton refuses to dismiss the complaint brought by the U.S. Women's Chamber against the SBA for failure to implement the Women's Procurement Program, and makes it clear that he will closely monitor SBA's progress toward implementation
?Washington, D.C. The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce congratulates the court for upholding the rights of Americans to expect the executive branch to implement the laws established by Congress. In an important Nov. 30, 2005 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton found the SBA and Administrator Hector Barreto's five-year delay has sabotaged the implementation of the Women's Federal Procurement Program and the delay has been "unreasonable" and "beyond the scope of the SBA and the Administrator's authority." The SBA must submit a proposed schedule for implementation of the program within 45 days, and take part in a status hearing.
"Women business owners are losing billions of dollars in opportunities every year as we wait for the SBA and Administrator Barreto to simply do their jobs," said U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce CEO Margot Dorfman. "We're happy to know our court system will hold the executive branch accountable for implementing the laws established by Congress, and we continue to wait for the SBA to implement this important economic program in support of women business owners."
"Not only has the court held that the incredible five-year delay in implementing this law is unreasonable, Judge Walton found that our members have sustained concrete injury which has harmed -- and continues to harm them -- and they are entitled to some form of relief," added Dorfman. "Judge Walton makes it clear he will check the progress of the SBA and retain jurisdiction in this case to monitor the SBA's adherence to congressional mandates."
"Even now, the SBA is dragging its feet on the implementation of the Women's Procurement Program. The SBA indicates it will not have the procedures for implementation of the program complete until May 2006, and has established a nine-month time frame for the completion of the new study," Dorfman continues. "The SBA was established to assist small business owners. Instead, after five long years, they still require an additional six months to simply write the procedures necessary to implement this program."
Background
On October 29, 2004, the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce filed a complaint against the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and SBA Administrator Hector Barreto in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, under the Administrative Procedure Act to compel the SBA to implement the Women's Procurement Program, Public Law 106-554, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 637(m).
As part of the SBA reauthorization in 2000, Congress passed what was originally titled the "Equity in Contracting for Women of 2000" Act. The purpose of this Act is to "allow contracts, in industries historically underrepresented by women-owned small businesses, to be reserved for competition by women-owned small businesses."
Congress issued this mandate on Dec. 21, 2000. Five years have passed and the SBA has unreasonably delayed its response to this mandate. The SBA has set, orally and in writing, a series of deadlines for accomplishing the steps necessary to implement this program, and all of these deadlines have been missed. And, the Administrator of the SBA recently informed leaders of the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce that he has no intention of implementing the program.
On May 26, 2005 over seventy members of Congress signed on to an amicus brief in support of the USWCC complaint seeking to compel the SBA to implement the law they passed.
On December 8, 2005 Judge Reggie B. Walton refused to dismiss the complaint brought by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce against the SBA for failure to implement the Women's Procurement Program, and made it clear through his memorandum that he will closely monitor SBA's progress toward implementation.
View Judge Walton's Memorandum Opinion here: 
http://www.uswcc.org/SBA-Opinion-113005.pdf.
View the USWCC complaint here: http://www.sblink.us/html/complaint.aspx.
About the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce
The U.S. Women's Chamber of CommerceT (www.uswomenschamber.com) is the pre-eminent national women's chamber of commerce network whose mission is to develop leaders, accelerate economic growth and provide a community voice for women. The USWCC, a not-for-profit 501(c)6 organization founded in 2001, is growing through councils and strategic alliances across the U.S. Creating and representing the next generation of leadership for women, the USWCC is women's connection to influence, education, opportunity and advancement. Its headquarters offices are located in Washington, D.C.
Contacts:
U.S. Women's Chamber of CommerceT media contact: Jill Van Dierendonck (800) 738-0653
U.S. Women's Chamber of CommerceT contact: Margot Dorfman, CEO (888) 41-USWCC / (888) 418-7922
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A new episode in the fight to make EC available over the counter:
MADISON, Wis. - Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager asked the governor on Thursday for permission to sue the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for delaying a decision on whether to make the morning-after pill available without a prescription.
Lautenschlager said the FDA's delays in approving the pills for over-the-counter distribution have hurt rape victims who want the pills immediately and strained state medical assistance programs with the costs of unplanned pregnancies.
She accused the FDA and the Bush administration of caving in to conservative groups that oppose emergency contraception and don't want to see it as readily available as cough syrup and aspirin.
"They have done this action for purely political reasons," said Lautenschlager, a Democrat.
Two manufacturers have asked the FDA since 2003 to make a brand of the pill called Plan B available over the counter. The first application was denied and the second has been in limbo for a year and a half.
Lautenschlager said a lawsuit could challenge FDA's procedures in the first request and seek a decision on the second.
FDA spokeswoman Susan Cruzan said the delay isn't political. A public comment period on the second request finished in November, and the agency is reviewing 10,000 responses, she said. The agency still is grappling with whether the pills should sell over the counter only to women at least 16 years old and how it would enforce such a restriction, she said.
Lautenschlager's office has no authority to file a federal lawsuit without Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's permission. If Doyle approves it, Wisconsin would become the first state to sue over Plan B's availability.
Doyle spokeswoman Melanie Fonder said the governor will order the state Department of Health and Family Services to work with the Department of Justice to compile information on the delay's effect on state resources, but he stopped short of authorizing the lawsuit.
"If they conclude that legal action is the best way to proceed, the governor will take that recommendation into account," Fonder said.
The morning-after pill contains a large dose of birth control and can reduce the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent - if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.
Eight states - Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Washington - allow women to buy Plan B without a prescription. Lautenschlager's request is the latest chapter in a protracted saga over whether to make the emergency contraception available over the counter nationwide.
Wendy Wright, executive vice president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative women's group, said Lautenschlager is doing abortion lobbyists' bidding. She said making Plan B available over the counter will encourage unprotected sex and result in more sexually transmitted diseases, draining Wisconsin's medical assistance programs, too.
"This is clearly so political," Wright said.
Women's Capital Corp. filed a request to switch the Plan B pills from prescription-only to over the counter in April 2003. FDA officials rejected the idea more than a year later, in May 2004, saying there was no evidence that anyone under 16 could safely use the pills with a doctor's help.
A congressional audit released last month, however, questioned how the agency reached that decision. The report found that in January 2004, months before the final ruling was officially reached, FDA's then-acting drug chief Dr. Steven Galson told workers refusal was recommended because of the teen issue.
The report said such a rationale was unprecedented. The agency had never before required special teen evidence for birth control and its own scientific advisers backed over-the-counter sales.
Barr Laboratories purchased the marketing rights to Plan B from Women's Capital and reapplied in July 2004, requesting that women 16 or older be allowed to purchase the pills without a prescription. Younger girls would still need a prescription.
The FDA announced in August a decision was on hold. FDA commissioner Lester Crawford said then Barr's request shouldn't be decided "behind closed doors" and opened the public comment period.
Barr spokeswoman Carol Cox said Plan B is ready for over-the-counter sales.
"We feel it's met those standards," Cox said.
Vagina Monologues: Feb. 24-26
GUERILLA GIRLS are coming to campus: March 1, 7pm; 0130 Tydings Hall!!!
Sexual Assault Awareness Series: March
Annual Take Back the Night: April
For more info, email Jackie at umdfam@yahoo.com
Tuesday, November 22, 7:00pm @ Margaret Brent Rm, Stamp Student Union
Thanks to everyone who came out!
We were very lucky to be able to bring Dr. Wood to campus on Monday Oct. 10, 2005, to speak about Emergency Contraception and the FDA's politically-based delaying tactics meant to restrict women's access to EC. Her lecture was informative and interesting, and Susan herself was just plain awesome. Many thanks to Terps for Choice for co-sponsoring this event!
Wednesday May 4th, 2005 7pm 2203 Art/Sociology NO! Screening and Discussion with Director Aishah Simmons Aishah Simmons is an award-winning independent feminist filmmaker, writer, international lecturer, and activist based in Philadelphia. As the producer, writer and director of NO! the forthcoming feature length documentary that poignantly exposes and addresses the collective silence of the Black community when Black men and boys rape Black women and girls, Simmons' presentation of her film will be followed by a moderated discussion on the topics explored within the film. Open and Free to the Public!
The 2005 Vagina Monolgues raised over $16,000 for various women's organizations, including My Sister's Place (a battered women's shelter in Washington DC), a fabric program for women in Mexico, as well as to keep the Victim Advocate's position on campus
In November 2004, hundreds of UMD students came out to protest the Genocide Awareness Project demonstration on Hornbake Mall. This extremist anti-choice organization compares abortion to various genocides throughout the world's history - including the holocaust, genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia, and the lynchings of Blacks in the South. THANK YOU FOR HELPING US SHOW GAP THAT UMD IS A PRO-CHOICE CAMPUS AND WE WILL NOT ACCEPT THEIR OBSCENE LIES AS TRUTH!!!
In April 2004 the Feminist Activists of Maryland helped bring more than 500 students to the March for Women's Lives. Follow this link to read about it: http://www.inform.umd.edu/News/Diamondback/archives/2004/04/26/news2.html
The 2004 Vagina Monologues presented by the Feminist Activists of Maryland raised over $25,000 for various women's charities and also helped keep the Victim Advocate's position on campus for another year
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