SBA

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Late last year, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a lengthy final rule that made changes to various SBA regulations. While the SBA highlighted its changes to the Mentor-Protégé program, the rule will have wide-ranging impacts on small business contracting, including the treatment of a small business offeror’s capabilities, past performance, and experience.

Prior to the issuance of the SBA’s new rule, FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iii) stated that an agency “should” consider the past performance of key subcontractors, but the use of “should” left agencies with broad discretion to consider (or not consider) subcontractor past performance. In many cases, agencies still issued solicitations that explicitly precluded consideration of subcontractor experience. Such limitations prevented small business offerors from using key subcontractors or a teaming arrangement to establish the required experience and past performance.
Continue Reading SBA Changes Ensure Small Businesses Can Utilize Teaming Arrangements and Subcontractor Experience

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When an agency decides to set aside an acquisition for participation only by small businesses, certain subcontracting limitations apply to the small business awardee. For construction contracts, the small business contractor cannot pay subcontractors more than 85% of the amount they receive from the agency. For service and supply contracts, the small business contractor cannot pay more than 50% of the amount paid to it by the agency to other entities that are not similarly situated. Work performed by similarly situated entities is not considered in determining if the limitation on subcontracting is violated. A similarly situated entity is defined as a small business subcontractor that is a participant of the same small business program as the prime contractor and is small for the NAICS code assigned by the prime contractor to the subcontract.
Continue Reading Recent GAO Decision Suggests SBA Regulation Regarding Limitations on Subcontracting Takes Precedence Over the FAR

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The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) finalized new regulations, effective October 1, 2018, that govern eligibility to obtain contracts that are set aside for veteran-owned small business and service-disabled veteran-owned small business (collectively, “(SD)VOSB”). The regulatory changes are intended to improve coordination between the VA’s “Vets First” program, which covers (SD)VOSB set-asides issued by the VA, and the SBA’s program, which covers (SD)VOSB set-asides issued by all other government agencies.
Continue Reading SBA and VA Publish Final Revisions to Regulations That Govern Set-Asides for VOSBs and SDVOSBs

Last week, I attended the ChallengeHER event in Arlington, VA where I had the pleasure of meeting other females in federal contracting. ChallengeHER events, which are organized by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and American Express (AMEX), are designed to supply women business owners with information and resources regarding the SBA’s Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) Program in order to provide more federal government contracting opportunities for small businesses owned by women.

One thing was made clear at the event – federal agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD), are indeed striving to achieve their goals of awarding 5% of their prime contracting dollars to WOSBs. Ms. Amy Kim, the SBA’s WOSB Program Manager, informed attendees that although federal agencies fell just shy of meeting the 5% goal in FY2017, they did award $20.8 Billion contracting dollars to WOSBs. While this number also includes contracting dollars awarded to WOSBs under other SBA socio-economic programs, it was encouraging to learn that FY2017 saw $723.5 Million in WOSB set-aside contract award dollars, which is a 60% increase from FY2016! Several representatives from the DoD discussed how the number of set-aside contract award dollars can continue to increase.
Continue Reading Reminder to Women Owned Businesses – Take Advantage of Federal Contracting Opportunities!

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Effective May 25, 2018, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) amended its regulations regarding a contractor’s size and/or socio-economic status following a novation, merger, or acquisition. Specifically, through a “technical correction,” the SBA revised its regulations to dictate that when a company becomes “other than small” or no longer has a certain socio-economic status (veteran-owned, woman-owned, HUBZone, etc.) as a result of a novation, merger, or acquisition, the business is no longer eligible to compete for set-aside task orders on multiple-award contracts held by the company. This change in eligibility is applicable even where the contracting officer does not specifically request a recertification. 
Continue Reading Contractor Beware: SBA Expands Impact of Novation, Merger, or Acquisition on Size and Socio-Economic Status

Associated General Contractors of America & Cohen Seglias Webinar

AGC_Logo_0On October 6th, join Partner Ed DeLisle for the Associated General Contractors of America webinar, “What all Federal Contractors—Big and Small—Need to Know about the New SBA Mentor-Protégé Program & Other Small Business Changes.” For more information, and to register for this event, please visit the AGC of America website.Continue Reading What all Federal Contractors Need to Know about the New SBA Mentor-Protégé Program & Other Small Business Changes

legal landscape special editionWelcome to a special edition of the Legal Landscape, a series we have developed with Onvia’s blog to provide government contractors with a quick, but thorough, summary of important legal developments and regulations in government contracting, as well as a plain-English explanation of how these developments may affect state & local contractors. In this special edition we’ll discuss significant changes recently rolled out by the Small Business Administration (SBA) regarding federal small business procurement regulations. Government contractors should keep in mind that state & local agencies often look toward changes in federal regulations as a guideline.


Continue Reading Legal Landscape Special Edition: SBA Rolls Out Major Small Business Changes

The long-awaited Final Rule addressing changes to the SBA’s Mentor-Protégé program is being published in the Federal Register today. The Mentor-Protégé program that was limited to 8(a) Small Business Concerns has now been expanded and, effective August 24, 2016, will be available to Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, HUBZones Small Businesses, and Women-Owned Small Businesses, as well as non-disadvantaged Small Business Concerns. The program is “designed to enhance the capabilities of protégé firms by requiring approved mentors to provide business development assistance to protégé firms and to improve the protégé firms’ ability to successfully compete for federal contracts.”


Continue Reading New Small Business Mentor-Protégé Program Announced By The SBA

In its final rule published on May 31, 2016, the SBA modified the regulations relating to affiliation based on an “identity of interest” pursuant to 13 C.F.R. § 121.103(f). Specifically, the SBA provided clearer guidelines regarding identity of interest affiliation due to familial relationships and economic dependence.


Continue Reading Identity of Interest Affiliation: Further Defined by the SBA