In August, the Small Business Administration issued a proposed rule that was packed to the brim with changes to many of the SBA’s small business contracting programs. We’ve mentioned a few of the changes in prior blog posts. Gregory Weber, discussed potential changes to the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program that may result in more relaxed requirements. While Shane McCall, recently took a deep dive into proposed changes to past performance requirements for joint ventures. Today, we will focus on two additional proposed changes to the SBA’s Small Business Mentor-Protégé Program.
Continue reading…Govology Webinar: September 19, 2024 – The Buy Indian Act: Regulatory Updates and Their Implications for Native-Owned Businesses
The Buy Indian Act is a law that gives contracting preference to companies owned by Native American tribes and tribal members. This law has been on the books for a century and it seems to be finally getting some teeth through regulatory changes and updates. This webinar, presented by myself and Nicole Pottroff will discuss the Buy Indian Act, as well as other rules and regulations that provide advantages to tribal entities. Hope you can join us! Register here.
SmallGovCon Week in Review: September 2-6, 2024
It’s Friday and it’s time for our week in review. We hope you had a wonderful Labor Day and were able to enjoy some time with friends and family. Now it is time to transition into fall and football season which we are very excited about here at SmallGovCon! We hope you have a great weekend.
This week in federal government contracting news saw some interesting storis about IT and cyber security, the feds avoiding fraud payments, and a potential boost for WOSB contracts.
Continue reading…SBA Proposed Rule: SBA Plans to Relax 8(a) Program Restrictions
The SBA recently dropped a large proposed rule that it grouped mainly under the HUBZone program, but actually touches on almost every SBA socioeconomic certification. So, it should come as no surprise that the SBA’s 8(a) Program is facing some potential changes based on this proposed rule. There are quite a few proposed updates to the 8(a) Program. We wanted cover just a few that really stood out to us here at SmallGovCon. Be sure to review the whole rule if you want to comment on any of these 8(a) changes.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week in Review: August 26-30, 2024
Happy Friday! In this week in review, we have included some noteworthy articles including the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) proposed rule with significant updates to the HUBZone program and other SBA rules. We dive into this proposal here. Other updates include the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) enhancing its mentor-protégé program and dealing with the end of the fiscal year. You can read more about these changes and other federal contracting news in the articles below.
We hope you have a wonderful long Labor Day weekend! Enjoy!
Continue reading…SBA Proposed Rule: Joint Venture Past Performance
How agencies evaluate past performance of joint ventures has been a somewhat confusing topic for federal contractors over the past few years. We’ve written about many of the key aspects of the evolution of this rule on SmallGovCon, from the earlier final rule to recent decisions interpreting that rule. The proposed rule would clarify how SBA thinks agencies should review past performance for joint ventures, but it also invites comment from contractors. This is an area where input from the federal contracting community could really have an impact on the final version of SBA’s rule.
Continue reading…News Flash: SBA Issues Proposed Rule with HUBZone and Small Business Changes
The SBA has issued a new proposed rule addressing both the Historically Underutilized Business Zone
(HUBZone) Program and other small business updates. It is titled: “HUBZone Program Updates and Clarifications, and Clarifications to Other Small Business Programs.” In this post, we’ll provide an overview of some of the main highlights of the proposed rule, and will do a deeper dive on some aspects of the regulation in later posts.