SBA regulations prohibit agencies from requiring the same past performance record from both mentor and protégé entities. The regulations explicitly prohibit this type of requirement.
In a recent GAO decision, it sustained the protest where an agency required all members in a joint venture to submit the same past experience examples in their proposal.
Continue reading…There are many things to know about responding to size protests. One could probably fill a book with the information-(actually I did, for those who want a real deep dive!). But if you need to know just the basics, here are five things you should know about size protests that can help you be prepared if your company is facing a size protest.
Continue reading…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.
Continue reading…As you move into the weekend, be on the lookout for the Pink Moon. It’s not really pink though, the name comes from the herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, so NASA tells me. This is one of the earliest flowers of spring. So even if you don’t actually see a pink moon, it still means spring is here.
Along with the moon, be sure to check out these government contracting updates, including a report on SBA review of PPP loans, changes to beta.SAM, and calls for emerging technologies for DoD.
Continue reading…Many small business clients of mine have been approached by or considered acquisition by a larger firm. Well, if this sort of sale or merger would turn a small business into a large business, the small business should pay close attention to a little-publicized change stemming from SBA’s Mentor-Protégé Consolidation rule that came out last fall. The new rule could result in a company losing out on an otherwise successful bid.
Continue reading…In January 2022, the rules regarding calculating small business size status for federal procurements will change dramatically. Companies operating under receipts-based size standards will be required to use their last five completed fiscal years–not three. And businesses operating under employee-based size standards will be made to use their last 24 months of payroll, instead of 12.
These changes will benefit growing businesses, allowing stay small longer by including older numbers in their averages. But the new size rules–what Congress has termed a small business “runway extension”–actually penalize some businesses, forcing them to stay large longer, and freezing these companies out of the very small business set-aside opportunities that could help reverse their declining fortunes. That can’t be what Congress intended!
Fortunately, the SBA has come up with a simple, elegant solution to the problem, and I think Congress should codify it before January.
Continue reading…Lately, I’ve been enjoying attending my daughter’s soccer games on the weekend. It’s nice getting out into the fresh air. Hope you are able to enjoy some fresh air this weekend as well. But before you do, check out the latest updates in government contracting.
This week saw some important updates in the federal contracting world. These included new details about the GSA administrator, a potential increased emphasis on evaluation of past performance, and DOD’s innovation ecosystem.
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