OHA Says: Compliance with SBA Joint Venture Requirements is Determined at the Time of Final Proposal Revisions

Posted on by

Navigating the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) regulations can sometimes feel like navigating through a room filled with laser tripwires. One wrong decision or misstep could result in the company’s disqualification. A company might make a decision relying on its understanding of one SBA regulation, unaware of the application of an entirely different SBA regulation. While a miscalculation in complying with the regulations doesn’t trigger the same disasters shown in an action-packed spy movie, the effects can still be costly.

In Primary Health Care, LLC d/b/a Anglin Distinctive Health Care JV, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-6370 (2025), a joint venture’s misapplication of SBA’s timing rules for size determination standards resulted in the company’s ineligibility for award.

Continue reading…

SmallGovCon Week in Review: Nov. 10-14, 2025

Posted on by

Happy Friday! It’s been another eventful stretch across the federal landscape, as agencies continue navigating everything from sweeping acquisition updates to the lingering aftershocks of the longest government shutdown on record. In other news, SBA has cleared its VetCert backlog for SDVOSB companies. Check out the articles below for the full rundown and enjoy your weekend!

Continue reading…

OHA Finds Totality of the Circumstances Affiliation Based on Loans and Close Oversight of Operations

Posted on by

Long-time SmallGovCon readers are probably aware of the thorny issues presented by an SBA finding of affiliation. When set aside contracts are dependent on a small business size status, an allegation of affiliation with a large business can be a crisis for a small business contractor. SBA’s affiliation doctrine is large and complex (so much so that we have an entire handbook dedicated to the subject).  But there is one catch-all affiliation provision that is perhaps the murkiest area of all, meaning the hardest to predict). If SBA does not find affiliation based on things like common ownership or common management (relatively straightforward concepts), it can nonetheless find affiliation based on “the totality of the circumstances.”

A recent OHA decision found affiliation based on totality of the circumstances, in part based on loans causing economic dependence, heavy reliance on infrastructure of an affiliate, and involvement in banking and operations.

Continue reading…

Happy Veterans Day From SmallGovCon

Posted on by

Today, on Veterans Day, we at SmallGovCon take a moment to honor the brave men and women who’ve served our country. We salute those who’ve worn the uniform and their families who’ve stood beside them. Both today and whenever we have the chance.

Because this is a legal blog, we also want to remind you of the federal government’s program for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses. Those benefits are available to those with disabled status based on their service, and those who work at their companies. It is a program that we hope to see grow even more important in the future.

For our service-disabled veteran readers and our veteran readers, we wish to say thank you. And Happy Veterans Day.

GAO to Federal Agency: You Must Show Your Work When it Comes to Evaluation Documentation

Posted on by

The gears of protest resolution at the General Accountability Office have ground to a halt due to the government shutdown but not so long ago, those protest gears were turning. And during that time, GAO sustained the protest of Island Peer Review Organization, Inc., d/b/a IPRO, B-417298.2, 2025 CPD ¶ 218 (Sept. 2025) due to an agency’s insufficient documentation of an evaluation process. What makes this one especially interesting is that getting a sustain on a protest based on inadequate documentation is somewhat rare. When it comes to inadequate documentation, it is more likely an agency takes corrective action, which shields the agency from having to share (under a protective order) source selection information. Or in many cases, if the protest makes it all the way to the comments portion of the protest, GAO finds that an agency did provide sufficient documentation. Read on to learn what it took for this protester to succeed on the inadequate documentation claim.

Continue reading…

SmallGovCon Week in Review: Nov. 3-7, 2025

Posted on by

I recently attended the NAPEX Fall conference in DC this past week. I was able to speak on the topic of The FAR Overhaul and Legal Updates for 2025. It was a great presentation with some insightful questions. Thanks to all the wonderful Apex Accelerator folks for saying hi to me.

It’s Friday and time for another week in review. This week was full of updates about the effects of the government shutdown. In other news, OPM is pushing to boost tech expertise and the DoD is looking to streamline acquisitions and hear from small businesses ahead of new cybersecurity standards (CMMC). You can read more about these stories and other federal government contracting developments in the articles below.

Have a great weekend.

Continue reading…

2025 8(a) Application Updates (Part II): SBA’s 90-Day Final Decision Timeline Delays

Posted on by

Despite various impacts to SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program–both quite recently and over the last couple years (which you can read about here and here, and even listened to me talk about here)–this “golden child” of SBA’s socioeconomic programs remains alive and well. And it is still one of the most lucrative and sought after SBA certifications out there. So, eligible contractors may be quite happy to hear, even during this most recent government shutdown, the 8(a) application portal remains up and running. In fact, given the current “pause” to other government contracting functions and filing portals, there may never be a better time than right now to work on those 8(a) applications. That said, anecdotally, we at SmallGovCon have been hearing from some 8(a) applicants about recent updates to the 8(a) application process and submission portal that we want to share with our readers via this two part blog. This second installment covers some general (again, anecdotal) application decision timeline updates (and you can read Part 1, about the new application countdown time, here).

Continue reading…