Posts dealing with the HUBZone program, including HUBZone eligibility and certification, the “35%” and “primary office” rules, the HUBZone price preference, and related matters.
If you were to fire up the ol’ Google and search for the phrase “hubzone map” guess what you would get—not one but two links that purport to be the Small Business Administration’s Historically Underutilized Business Development Zone (HUBZone) program map.
Is there any indication which is the correct map? No. Might one return false results? Yes.
Continue readingCan a business seeking HUBZone status give employees bonuses or higher wages to entice them to live in a HUBZone?
According to new guidance published by the U.S. Small Business Administration, yes. But that’s not the only question addressed in the guidance.
Continue readingJust last week during a Govology webinar on Women-Owned Small Businesses, one of the attendees asked my colleague Haley Claxton and I an insightful question about the different standards for giving sole source awards to participants in various government programs. She wanted to know the difference between how contracting officers go about offering an 8(a) sole source award and a WOSB sole source award.
I had to admit, the practical, ground-level, nitty gritty business of how these awards are doled out doesn’t actually come across my desk that much.
So, let’s take a look, shall we?
Continue readingSBA proposed a major revamp of how it will interpret and enforce the HUBZone program’s rules back in October of 2019. We wrote about the major changes in a couple of posts (here and here) as well as some of the common misconceptions that SBA cleared up as part of the proposed rule.
Well, the wait is over. SBA will release the final rule November 26 and the new rules will become effective on December 26, 2019.
Continue readingAmidst the news cycle focusing on the government shutdown, there is some other action in the House of Representatives that recently caught our eye.
The House recently passed a bill called the “Expanding Contracting Opportunities for Small Businesses Act of 2019.” If the bill becomes law, we will see a dramatic expansion in the size of sole source contracts for SDVOSBs, WOSBs, and HUBZones.
Continue readingAs we discussed in a previous post, there are big changes on the horizon for the HUBZone program. On October 31, the SBA published a proposed rule that, if adopted, would overhaul the program.
Recently, the SBA extended the period for public comment to February 14, 2019.
Continue readingBig changes could be coming to the HUBZone program. On October 31, the SBA published a proposed rule that, if adopted, would bring clarity to the HUBZone regulations. Yesterday, we posted about proposed changes to the HUBZone certification, compliance, and protest processes.
In this post, we wanted to bring you up to speed on some of the more substantive revisions to the way HUBZone employees are defined and counted under the proposed rule.