Category Archives: Statutes and Regulations

Legislative Updates: Small Business Bills in the House (& Senate)!

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Just like the elves in Santa’s workshop, Congress has been busy this winter season! Among the chaos, three bills with the potential to impact small business Federal government contractors have been percolating. The first and third bill propose amendments to laws already in place covering surviving spouses of SDVOSB owners and the Department of Homeland Security’s Mentor-Protege Program, while the second bill proposes an entirely new SBA program for small businesses geared toward promoting research and development efforts.

Here’s our brief summary of each bill:

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New Avenue for SBA Protests: Ostensible Subcontractor Status Protests

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SBA has issued a final rule, effective December 30, that will now provide an avenue to protest situations where the prime contractor on a SDVOSB, HUBZone, or WOSB set-aside contract is subcontracting most or all of the work to a non-similarly situated—but still small business—concern.

It will also allow SBA to review eligibility for 8(a) Program contracts on this ground as well.

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SBA Adds to Compliance Rules for Limitations on Subcontracting

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Recently, the SBA released a final rule that clarifies some of the mysteries surrounding the limitation on subcontracting rules. The new rule, which goes into effect on December 30, 2019, provides clearer guidelines for contractors, while also creating some new requirements and definitions as discussed below.

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SBA Finalizes Rule Allowing Set-Asides Under Small Business MACs

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The SBA has published a final rule that would allow for quite the change to small business set-aside multiple award contracts (MACs) and orders issued under them. This final rule amends the SBA’s regulations to authorize task and delivery orders issued under a small business set-aside MAC, to be set-aside for HUBZone businesses, 8(a) businesses, SDVOSBs, or WOSBs.

While agencies had set aside orders under MACs before, SBA has now clarified its regulations to allow socioeconomic set-asides of orders under small business set-aside MACs.

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5-Year Receipts Calculation Period Effective January 6, 2020

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At SmallGovCon, we’ve closely followed the SBA’s implementation of the Small Business Runway Extension Act. After much confusion caused by the delayed implementation of the Act, there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel: the 5-year receipts calculation period will become effective January 6, 2020.

Importantly, the SBA’s final rule implements relief for businesses that will be adversely affected by the change to a 5-year receipts calculation period.

Let’s take a look.

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SBA Proposes to Remove the “Three” from the “Three-In-Two” Rule for Joint Ventures

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The SBA recently proposed a rule that would amend the infamous three-in-two (AKA 3-in-2) rule for joint ventures. SBA’s current regulations provide that a joint venture can be awarded no more than three contracts over a two-year period.

While SBA plans to keep the two-year lifespan for joint venture awards, it plans to get rid of the three contract maximum.

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SBA Proposes to Change When Companies Need to Recertify Size and Status for Orders

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SBA recently proposed changes to a number of its small business rules, as we’ve written about in earlier posts. The same proposed rule includes a small but significant change to when a business has to recertify its size and status for orders under multiple award contracts.

Based on the number of times we’ve written about size and status protests for orders under multiple award contracts (see the related content at the bottom of this post for a sampling), this is an area in need of clarity.

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