Federal contractors, be sure to ask your kids or a young person what TikTok is (if you don’t already know), because those providing services to the federal government now have to take steps to ban it from employee’s devices in certain situations. A recent FAR rule has now implemented Congress’s ban on use of TikTok on government devices.
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SBA Revisions to the “Two-Year Rule” for Joint Ventures: a Reminder to Read the Entire Rule
SBA recently revised its affiliation regulations in a number of ways, some of which we have already discussed here. We have likely sounded pretty upbeat about most of SBA’s recent updates thus far, as the majority do seem to be a step in the right direction–adding clarity to SBA’s rules and furthering the policies SBA seeks to enforce. Well, not trying to rain on any parades here, but at least one of SBA’s recent regulatory updates, (at least in our humble opinion) has the potential to confuse federal contractors regarding SBA’s affiliation rules. That update revised the language in SBA’s “Two-Year Rule” for small business joint ventures–though, it really didn’t change the substance or effect of the rule, at all. Let’s take a closer look.
Continue readingException to the Rule: Evaluating Price at IDIQ Versus Order Level Is a Limited Exception
A recent COFC decision yielded some important insights about government contracting. We already wrote about some joint venture aspects of the decision. But the decision also touched on whether GSA’s solicitation violated federal procurement law by excluding price as an evaluation factor at the indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) level for a procurement.
Continue readingLimitations on Subcontracting: Partial Set Asides
Subcontracting is a hot topic in the federal government contracting world. Large businesses placing bids on federal procurements are often required to have a small business subcontracting plan, while small businesses are limited to exactly how much work they can subcontract out. The FAR and SBA rules contain the details relevant to small businesses’ limitations on subcontracting. These regulations are, in general, pretty straightforward. Well, at least when it comes to total small business set asides for one specific type of work. Further, there are a ton of resources available to help small business federal contractors understand these limits. Just googling “limitations on subcontracting” comes up with webinars, blogs, federal government sites, and even YouTube videos on the topic, but most only focus on the more general limitations. There aren’t nearly as many resources that take on the topic of partial set asides, but these limitations are important as well. In this post, I am going to walk you through how these limitations apply to partial set asides to show that contracts partially set aside for small businesses are not nearly as intimidating as they may seem.
Continue readingEvent: Limitations on Subcontracting and the Nonmanufacturer Rule Webinar hosted by Texas El Paso APEX Accelerators, June 6, 10:00-11:30am MDT
For small businesses and their teammates, few topics in government contracting are as confusing as the limitations on subcontracting for set-aside and socioeconomic sole source contracts. And if that isn’t stressful enough, the “LoS” is an area of heavy enforcement: get it wrong, and a contractor can face major penalties. The nonmanufacturer rule is another commonly misunderstood rule in the federal government contracting realm–but also, one we encounter quite often in our role assisting federal contractors.
In this course, government contracts attorneys, Nicole Pottroff & Stephanie Ellis, from Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC, will help you make sense of the limitations on subcontracting and nonmanufacturer rule. Using a step-by-step process and plenty of examples to bring these rules to life will help you ensure both understanding and compliance. Hope you will join us! Registration link here.
Size Standards Applicable to SBA’s Socioeconomic Programs
If you are an avid SmallGovCon reader and a small business government contractor, you are probably no stranger to at least the basics of SBA’s size standards and its size and affiliation regulations (if not, check out some of our other blogs on the subject and keep an eye out for our upcoming new, second edition of the “SBA Small Business Size and Affiliation Rules” handbook). Additionally, most of our readers and most small business government contractors seem to understand at least the basics of SBA’s contract-based size requirements (i.e. that a small business–regardless of socioeconomic designation(s)–must be small under the size standard assigned to any set-aside contract it wants to bid). But did you know, if you are pursuing or participating in one of SBA’s other small business socioeconomic programs (8(a) Program, HUBZone, WOSB, SDVOSB, etc.), there may actually be some additional size requirements you must meet in order to be generally eligible for such small business socioeconomic statuses?
Continue readingSBA New Rule: Guidelines for Compliance with Limitations on Subcontracting in 13 C.F.R. 125.6
13 C.F.R. § 125.6 sets out the limitations on subcontracting for all small business set-asides (including 8(a), SDVOSB/VOSB, HUBzone, and WOSB/EDWOSB set asides.) These limitations on subcontracting are crucial for any small business federal contractor to be familiar with, and we have discussed how they work here. But, while the regulation does provide for certain legal penalties for violations of these limitations, up until SBA’s recent rule change, it didn’t provide for any direct consequences for a company’s past performance (although conceivably an agency could mention limitations on subcontracting as part of a CPARS review). Furthermore, SBA now will require that compliance with the limitations be looked at on an order-by-order basis for multi-agency set aside contracts where more than one agency can issue orders under the contract, and for full and open contracts where the task order is set aside for small businesses. All this is effective May 30, 2023, and we explore these changes here.
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