A recent OHA decision reminds us that it’s important to show and tell the SBA how a company seeking certification is meeting the SBA’s requirements for control of a socioeconomic company. Like many of these decisions involving SBA’s programs, it comes out of the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) VetCert program. That’s because the SDVOSB program allows appeals of denials of certifications. The other programs don’t allow such broad reasons for appeals from certifications (or at least have restrictions on them).
Continue reading…Event Announcement: NAPEX Fall Conference 2024
We are excited to announce that Nicole Pottroff will be attending the Fall NAPEX conference in Washington DC and will be presenting on legal updates on October 30. The conference gives agencies and primes the opportunity to promote supplier diversity programs and learn how the APEX Accelerators can partner and assist in meeting contracting goals.
The Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) is the professional organization of and for the DoD APEX Accelerators nationwide. APTAC supports the APEX Accelerators by providing important information, professional networking, comprehensive training and a voice in national government contracting assistance. They are a great resource for obtaining helpful information for federal government contractors. We certainly enjoy the opportunity to present throughout the year for this beneficial organization.
If you are attending, please stop by our table to say hello. Hope to see you there!
SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 14-18, 2024
Hello, SmallGovCon readers. We hope you are enjoying some nice fall weather wherever you are, here in Kansas our temperatures are finally down in the 70s, which has been a welcome relief. Some articles we’ve highlighted this week include multiple takes on the new CMMC rule finalized by the Pentagon, and a updates on DoD spending. You can read more about these topics and news from this week in the links below.
Continue reading…Preview Shows Changes to 8(a) Application in New SBA Portal
As many in federal contracting know, the SBA had its certification portal (certify.sba.gov) closed for upgrades for a few months. The SBA is replacing it with a new portal called MySBA Certifications which as of the writing of this blog post is now live. While it hasn’t been widely published, SBA released screenshots of this new portal, which indicate SBA is making some large changes to applications, especially for applications to the 8(a) Program. We here at SmallGovCon think it is important for Federal Contractors to be aware of these changes before utilizing this new portal.
Continue reading…35th Annual Judicial Conference – U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington DC
I will be presenting at the 35th Annual Judicial Conference in Washington, D.C., on October 23. This prestigious event gathers legal professionals, judges, and scholars from across the country to discuss the latest developments in the judiciary and legal system.
It’s definitely an honor to be speaking at the 35th Annual Judicial Conference for the Court of Federal Claims. My topic is: Private Conflicts: How the New Private Sector OCI Rules Could Impact Federal Procurement.
Hope to see you there! You can read more about this event and the speakers giving presentations at this link.
Agency Discretion Recertified: GAO Affirms Agency Discretion to Request Size Recertification for Task Orders
When it comes to meeting the size standards, the normal rule for a set-aside contract is simple: If you’re small at the time you submitted your initial offer for the contract, you’re small for the life of the contract. So says 13 C.F.R. § 121.404–although this could be changing in the future based on a proposed SBA rule. Furthermore, this is the general rule with set-aside IDIQs as well: If you’re small at the time of initial offer for the IDIQ, you’re small for all orders under that IDIQ. (Not so with set-aside task orders under otherwise unrestricted IDIQs, there it very much is time of offer for the task order rather than the IDIQ for the date to determine size). However, there are a couple of exceptions. The biggest one is where the contracting officer explicitly requests size recertification for the given task order. In that case, an offeror must show it is still a small business as of when it submits its offer for that task order. One contractor recently protested when the contracting officer did just that. Here, we’ll explore that GAO decision.
Continue reading…New Podcast out now with Govcon Giants
Check out my podcast recording with Eric Coffie of Govcon Giants. In this podcast, we talk about about key strategies that can help small businesses succeed. From the importance of understanding the Small Business Administration (SBA) rules to forming effective joint ventures and teaming agreements.
Check out this recording and a lot of other great recordings from Govcon Giants. Thanks to Eric for the opportunity to chat and to be part of his great podcast!