Category Archives: Statutes and Regulations

The SBA Proposes New Rules to Help Small Businesses in Obtaining Past Performance

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The SBA proposes to amend its regulations to implement new provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2021 that provides small business contractors with new tools to establish past performance when bidding on prime contracts for Government procurements. The proposed rules would add two new methods for small businesses to obtain qualifying past performance. One proposed rule would allow a small business with no relevant past performance of its own to use the past performance of a joint venture in which it took part. The second proposed rule would require prime contractors to provide, to small businesses that served as a first-tier subcontractor, a record of the business’s past performance for use by the small business in future proposals.

The proposed rules are here.

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Picking Your Team: Joint Ventures Versus Prime/Subcontractor Teams (Part Two, Past Performance)

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Federal contractors often ask: “Is it better to team up for government work with a prime-sub arrangement or with a joint venture?” Well, (spoiler alert) the answer is: it depends. But I won’t leave you with just that. This three-part series will provide insight on some of the major differences between these two types of “teams” that offerors should consider when making the decision between a joint venture or prime/subcontractor team in competing for and performing federal contracts. While this series will not provide a comprehensive list of all the differences between these two types of teams, it will cover some of the big ones that seem to come up more frequently in this decision-making process. The focus of the first article in this three-part series was work share considerations. This second article will focus on evaluations of a team’s past performance.

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Data Rights and the Government Contractor: Limited Data Rights

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In our last post on intellectual property and government contracts, we went over a basic discussion about data rights and then addressed the matter of unlimited data rights for the government. As discussed, unlimited data rights basically give the government free rein to do as they wish with the data. More importantly, the FAR provides that such unlimited data rights are the government’s default rights. But there is a way to limit the government’s rights: limited data rights.

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SBA Updates Veteran Surviving Spouse Rule

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A proposed rule from SBA will make changes to the SDVOSB rules. SBA has modified its rules allowing surviving spouses to continue owning Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses after the veteran owner has passed away. This should provide some help to spouses of disabled veterans. SBA has updated a few dollar thresholds as well.

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SBA Proposes Rule to Use 24-Month Period to Calculate Number of Employees

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The SBA has released a proposed rule to use a 24-month period to calculate a company’s number of employees for eligibility purposes in all of SBA’s programs. This change will affect any business seeking to qualify as small under an employee-based NAICS code, such as those applicable to manufactured products.

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Five Things You Should Know: Common Misconceptions about the Contractor Vaccine Mandate

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The contractor vaccine mandate is the talk of the government contracting community. As contractors scramble to understand the ins-and-outs of the new requirement, my colleagues and I are seeing some of the same misconceptions repeatedly arise.

Without further ado, here are five common misconceptions about the contractor vaccine mandate, and the actual rules you should know in regards to each.

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House-Approved 2022 NDAA Makes HUBZone Changes, Including HUBZone Appeals

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The House-passed version of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act would make some significant changes for the HUBZone program. Among them are the ability to have HUBZone appeals heard by administrative judges. Below is a summary of the key changes The House version of the 2022 NDAA includes some amendments that could come about if they are all included in the final law.

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