Category Archives: Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses

Recent Task Force Meeting Underscores Challenges Facing SDVOSB Transfer from VA to SBA

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Sometimes, task force meetings are held just for the sake of having meetings. However, on June 2nd and 3rd the Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development (IATF) and Advisory Committee on Veterans Business Affairs (ACVBA) met to discuss important issues facing small businesses. This shed much needed light on the issues fast approaching and what steps the SBA needs to take.

The main topic of discussion was the pending CVE transfer. The transfer, as I soon found out, is deceptively complex. In a separate point, SBA noted that the Biden Administration announced it will use the purchase power of the federal government to make more awards to disadvantaged businesses, raising the target from 5% to 10%.

The star of the show, however, was the CVE transfer. So, what does this mean for you?

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SBA’s SDVOSB “Normal Business Hours” Rule Needs Fixing–Here’s How

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SBA’s regulations for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses create a rebuttable presumption that a service-disabled veteran doesn’t control the company if the veteran is unable to work normal business hours in the company’s industry.

The rule sounds reasonable at first blush, but as a recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals case demonstrates, the SBA may apply the presumption even to a one-person start-up with no contracts. Not many people can afford to quit their day jobs before their businesses truly get off the ground–creating a real conundrum for SDVOSB start-ups.

For the sake of fairness, the SBA’s Normal Business Hours rule needs fixing, pronto. Here’s how to do it.

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Reminder: If Pricing is Too High, VA Rule of Two Might Not Apply

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The VA Rule of Two, while a powerful motivator for setting procurements aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, does have its limits.

One of those exceptions was discussed in a recent ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The court confirmed that the VA may convert a service-disabled veteran-owned small business set-aside solicitation to a small business set-aside if the SDVOSB bids it receives are too high in price. 

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VA SDVOSB “Rule of Two”: Contracting Officer’s Price Reasonableness Determination Need Not Defer to FSS

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The VA’s “rule of two” for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses provides a powerful contracting preference. Thanks to the rule of two, the VA awarded 23.39% of prime contracting dollars to SDVOSBs in Fiscal Year 2019, compared to 4.39% governmentwide.

But the rule of two has its limits. Importantly, before issuing an SDVOSB set-aside, the Contracting Officer must have a reasonable belief that “the award can be made at a fair and reasonable price that offers best value to the United States.” And, as a powerful federal court recently held, the fact that an SDVOSB’s prices have been accepted by the GSA under the Federal Supply Schedule program does not require the VA to accept those prices as fair and reasonable in a rule of two analysis.

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2020 Rewind: The Year’s Biggest Government Contracting News Affecting Small Businesses

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Let’s face it: most people won’t look back on 2020 with anything remotely approaching nostalgia.  Here at Koprince Law LLC, we are eager to turn the page and move on with 2021, too. 

But small businesses shouldn’t forget 2020 completely.  The year brought many important developments, including major changes to some key government contracting rules that our readers should remember.  So here, in a nutshell, are the most important 2020 government contracting changes and legal developments for small businesses. 

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Congress Approves Government-wide SDVOSB Certification Requirement; Transfers CVE to SBA

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The House and Senate have agreed to eliminate service-disabled veteran-owned small business self-certification and adopt a government-wide SDVOSB certification requirement, while transferring control of the certification process from the VA to the SBA.

The Conference Report on the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act would require government-wide SDVOSB certification (eventually) and transfer control of the the Center for Verification and Evaluation from the VA to the SBA. Assuming the President signs the bill into law (which, unlike the typical NDAA, remains to seen), SDVOSB self-certification–which is still the law for non-VA contracts–is on its way out.

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OHA: CVE Appeals Go Directly to Us, Not CVE

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OHA recently confirmed it lacked jurisdiction over a CVE appeal mistakenly filed with CVE, not OHA, by the deadline. You might be thinking: “Oh come on, the CVE appeal was filed with CVE on time!” But OHA’s strict timeliness rules make no exception for any such mistakes in the CVE appeal process. In fact, OHA disclaims the authority to even consider a late appeal, regardless of whether or not it was timely (but improperly) filed with CVE itself.

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