Webinar Event: Small Business Certifications hosted by the Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship, December 14, 2023, 4:00pm EST

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Please join Greg Weber and I for this informative webinar on small business certifications. Participants will get an overview about:

  • Woman Owned Small Business and Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business
  • 8(a)  Business Development Program
  • HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone)
  • Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business

We will discuss how to get certified, how long it may take, regulations, changes, updates, and tips and tricks on how to be prepared. We hope you will join us. Register here.

Free Webinar Event: Mastering Size Calculations for SBA Size Determinations hosted by LeftBrain, December 12, 2023, 1:00pm EST

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If your small business status hangs in the balance, you can’t afford mistakes in your next SBA size determination. Join us for an in-depth look at key accounting strategies and lessons from recent SBA size appeal decisions involving affiliation issues, joint ventures, and receipts calculation. Learn how to properly account for inter-affiliate transactions, raise strong arguments, and avoid missteps that could lead to an adverse size determination. Register now to demystify SBA rules and gain the knowledge needed to respond to size protests and succeed in appeals.

If you are interested, please register here.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: Nov. 27-Dec. 1

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Happy December! If you haven’t started your holiday shopping, don’t panic, you still have time! It’s hard to believe that 2023 is almost over. I don’t know about you, but here at SmallGovCon, the year seemed to fly by.

We hope you have a nice weekend and can get out to enjoy all the holiday season has to offer.

And now, in federal government contracting news, check out some interesting articles about how the federal government is approaching the use of AI and protecting critical supply chains.

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FAR Subcontracting Plan Update: Credit for Lower Tier Subcontractors Means Lower Tier No Longer Lower Value

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Updates to the SBA’s Small Business Subcontracting Plan regulations in response to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 Section 870 are changing the circumstances in which a prime contractor can receive credit for lower-tier subcontractors, effective November 13, 2023. Such changes make the inclusion of lower-tier subcontractors in certain situations optional and put the onus on the lower tier subcontractors to report such work to the SBA if the lower tier subcontractor wishes to receive credit. It is important to note that these changes have no effect on any first tier subcontracting requirements.

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OHA: Respond to SBA Size Determination Questions, or Risk an Adverse Inference

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SBA’s size protest rules contain a stick to force companies to respond to SBA as part of size determination. That stick is called the adverse inference rule. The adverse inference rule says that, if SBA requests specific information and a protested company refuses to provide it, SBA may assume that the missing information would show that the company is not a small business. In a recent decision, SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) upheld the use of the adverse inference.

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GAO: Debriefings Only Delay Filing Deadlines For GAO Protest

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While losing a procurement is never easy, many contractors will learn some valuable lessons from a debriefing. On top of that, a debriefing can delay bid protest filing deadlines at GAO. However, recently, GAO clarified that the bid protest filing deadline delay for debriefings only applies to GAO protests. A protestor found this out the hard way after a pre-award debrief, and multiple protest actions.

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Room for Improvement: Statistics Suggest It is Unclear if Large Businesses are Meeting Small Business Subcontracting Goals.

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Just as agencies have established goals to award a certain percentage of their procurements to small businesses and businesses participating in socio-economic programs like the 8(a) Program, large business contractors must establish goals to include small business subcontractors in their pool of subcontractors for unrestricted awards over the applicable threshold in FAR 19.702 ($750,000 for most contracts, $1.5 million for construction contracts). While the specific goal will vary with each contract (or in some cases may be on a company-wide basis), it is rare for a contracting officer to find a large business hasn’t met the given goal. However, an investigation by GAO indicates that large business contractors aren’t meeting their small business subcontracting goals as often as the government would hope. Let’s take a deeper look at these findings.

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