SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans provided nearly $800 billion dollars of crucial financial support to over 8.5 million businesses and nonprofit organizations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the proverb goes, “all good things must come to an end.” SBA closed the PPP doors to new loan guaranty applications at the end of May 2021 and released a closing statement on the program’s success.
Continue readingAuthor Archives: Nicole Pottroff
Agency Not Required to Hunt Down and Investigate Bad Publicity, Says GAO
In a recent decision, GAO said that it is not the contracting agency’s job to play investigator when it comes to publicly available negative past performance information. GAO acknowledged that there may be certain situations where the agency is required to consider such information that it is aware of during its evaluation. But according to GAO, this denied protest involved no such situation.
Continue readingCIO-SP4 Postponed (Again) But Final Signature Expected Next Week
NITAAC’s Acting Director Brian Goodger released an update on the long awaited CIO-SP4 Request for Proposals (RFP) today. He provided some insight as to the delays in the RFP’s release and assured everyone that they expect the last signature on the final RFP next week.
Continue reading5 Things You Should Know: SBA’s Recent 8(a) Program Updates
SBA has been hard at work this past year updating its 8(a) Business Development Program rules and policies. And we have been doing our best here at SmallGovCon to keep you posted. Many of our blog posts focused on SBA’s monumental November 2020 “rule overhaul,” which implemented several 8(a) rule changes. But given the sheer magnitude of information in that final rule, it is pretty easy to lose track of which updates might affect you, as a potential 8(a) applicant or current 8(a) participant. There were also some pretty important changes to the 8(a) Program just prior to and subsequent to SBA’s November 2020 final rule.
Suffice it to say, there is a lot to process! So, we thought a quick summary blog on some of the most significant changes to the 8(a) Program of late might help you in that endeavor. Without further ado, here are five things you should know about SBA’s recent 8(a) Program updates.
Continue readingSBA Suggests Three Pages or Fewer for Social Disadvantage Narratives–But Really?
SBA guidance on Certify.SBA.Gov suggests that an 8(a) Program applicant’s social disadvantage narrative should be “three pages or less.” While we are definitely in the habit of recommending small business contractors to follow SBA’s guidance most of the time, we simply cannot climb aboard the “three-page” ship. In fact, we have significant concerns that submitting a one to three page narrative could potential “sink” your 8(a) application (at a minimum, requiring you to make extensive and time-consuming revisions later on).
Continue readingUpdate: DUNS Not “Done” Until Spring 2022
GSA has recently announced that the long anticipated DUNS Number transition to the new Unique Entity ID (UEI) Standard has been pushed back to April 2022.
Continue readingHappy International Women’s Day From SmallGovCon!
We at SmallGovCon just wanted to take a minute to wish all the amazing women out there a Happy International Women’s Day! And we would like to send a special shout-out to all of our WOSBs and EDWOSBs while we are at it!
Here’s to commemorating women’s history of achievement and celebrating the bright future to come!