Congressional Research Service Report Discusses Emergency-Related Acquisition Flexibilities, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This Congressional report, issued December 27, 2022, provides a “discussion of acquisition flexibilities federal agencies may use to facilitate the government’s response to and recovery from disasters and emergencies.” The report explains the various types of flexibilities and some of the pros and cons of each. And it concludes by identifying several significant issues related to these acquisition flexibilities. Let’s take a look.

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Back to Basics: Top Five Things About SDVOSBs and VOSBs

You’ve served your country with pride. Now, as a government contractor, it’s only fair that you get your piece of the pie. Previously, we here at SmallGovCon have discussed the 5 things you should know regarding SDVOSBs and VOSBs. But in the years since that, much has changed in the world of SDVOSBs and VOSBs. So here are five updated basics you should know about the government’s contracting program for veteran-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses:

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 16-20, 2023

Happy Friday Readers. We hope you all have had a great week. We are enjoying some milder winter weather here in Kansas and received some much-needed rain. We still have a bit to go before spring, so hopefully we will get a little snow still this winter.

Enjoy the weekend and we also hope you will enjoy reading the articles below, regarding federal government contracting this week, including what small business contractors can look for in 2023.

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Law to Create One Stop Shop for Small Businesses Questions

In late 2022, Congress passed and the President signed a law that aims to make it easier for Small Business Contractors to track down small business compliance information for the wide range of agencies involved in government contracting, that are currently housed somewhere within each specific agency’s website. In this post, SmallGovCon reviews this law, and through it, can examine with our readers where you can currently find the many resources available for small business issues at federal agencies. While these small business offices may not be able to solve all your problems as a federal contractor, a free resource is always good to have.

Editor’s Note: the website is up and running here.

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Year in Review: Top SmallGovCon Posts of 2022

Happy New Year, Readers! Hope everyone is off to a great start in 2023. As we have done in the past, we want to take a step back and revisit those blog posts from 2022 that were the most popular. Below, we summarize the blogs written in 2022 that were the most popular as well as the perennial favorites from years past that were the most popular in 2022. It’s a good chance to look back on the important articles from 2022, and those topics of continuing interest to federal contractors.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 9-13, 2023

Happy Friday, Readers! Now that the holidays are over, we are really enjoying the NFL Playoffs and rooting for our Kansas City Chiefs. There’s never a dull moment when Patrick Mahomes is on the field! Our fingers are crossed that the team can get to another Super Bowl.

There was a lot of activity in federal government contracting this week and it seems that contract opportunities are really increasing. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) began accepting applications through the Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) program to expanding access to resources for Veterans and other underserved populations. You can read the full press release in the article below as well as other noteworthy news articles that we have included. Enjoy the weekend!

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Webinar Event: Buy American Act & Trade Agreements, January 19, 2023, 1-2:00 PM CST

The Texas South-West Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network is hosting this upcoming, informative webinar on the Buy American Act, presented by me and John Holtz. The Buy American Act permits agencies to buy foreign end products only under certain exceptions, such as when domestic items are not available at a reasonable cost. Further, U.S. trade agreements waive the Buy American restrictions for certain products.

Please join us to learn more about these rules to include the recent updates. You can register here.