SmallGovCon Week in Review: March 14-18, 2022

Happy Friday! We hope you were able to get out an enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day festivities this week and the start of March Madness. As the hometown of the #1 seeded Kansas Jayhawks, we are especially excited about the NCAA tournament. We have our brackets locked in and are hoping for another fun ride!

It was also a big week in Federal Government contracting! For one, the Whitehouse and SBA released statements on advancing economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in Federal contracting by promoting pay equity and transparency. Also, a major DoD IT contract award is facing a bid protest.

You can read those articles and more below. Have a great weekend!

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SBA Confirms that Size Status Relates Back to Time of Offer, Even After Sale of Small Business

Over the years, SBA size regulations have included the general rule that the size status of a business generally relates back the time of initial offer on a contract. Therefore, a small business generally stays small for the duration of a federal contract, with some exceptions. However, there was also language in the rule that required small businesses to recertify their size status after being acquired or going through similar transactions. The effect of this recertification requirement was always a little unclear. If you recertify as large, does that have any effect on your small business status for orders under contracts awarded when the business was small? Now, OHA has answered that concern.

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Event: Compliant and Effective Teaming Agreements, Joint Ventures & Subcontracts – 3-Part Series (2022 Update), March 22-24, Hosted by Govology

Koprince McCall Potroff LLC is presenting a 3-part series focused on teaming agreements, joint venture agreements and subcontracts which can be essential to winning and successfully performing federal government contracts. Shane McCall and Nicole Pottroff explain how to develop, negotiate and administer agreements that are both compliant and effective for both small and large contractors. The presentations will cover both the key rules (such as flow-downs and ostensible subcontractor affiliation) and best practices for agreements that go beyond the bare minimum legal requirements.

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Other Transaction Authority? What Other Transaction Authority? – A Look at OTA

Ah, the Federal Acquisition Regulations, or FAR. Quite numerous and complex, yes, but they provide a standardized set of rules and procedures that govern federal government procurements.  Regardless of what contract you’re dealing with (other than a few exceptions such as the FAA, which is not subject to the FAR), you can be sure that the rules of the FAR govern it.

Unfortunately, that last statement is not true.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: March 7-11, 2022

If March is supposed to come in like a lion and leave like a lamb, we are certainly still in the lion stage this week, with another winter snow storm that arrived here yesterday. No worries, however, because next week the lamb arrives with 70 degree weather and we are ready for it. Hopefully, this will be winter’s last gasp as warmer temperatures are sure to follow and we spring forward into daylight savings time.

There was a lot happening in federal government contracting news this week, such as the new Buy American Act final rule and updates on more cybersecurity requirements being considered for government agencies. We have included those and some additional articles that we hope you will find informative.

Have a great weekend!

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SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program: Affiliation Still Matters

The SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program went into effect March 27, 2020.  At that time many business owners faced confusion in trying to navigate the affiliation rules to determine their company’s eligibility for the program. Fast forward nearly two years and many businesses that received Paycheck Protection Loans have submitted applications for forgiveness of those loans. Some of those businesses are now having to consider potential affiliation issues that they may have initially overlooked in response to inquiries from SBA in its review of their loan forgiveness application.

We thought this would be a good time to revisit the basics of SBA’s affiliation rules for the Paycheck Protection Program.

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Happy International Women’s Day From All of Us at SmallGovCon!

We at SmallGovCon just wanted to take a minute to wish all the amazing women out there a Happy International Women’s Day! And we would like to send an extra-special shout-out to all of our WOSBs and EDWOSBs while we are at it! It’s been a big year for you all with SBA’s implementation of its new WOSB/EDWOSB certification program.

Here’s to commemorating women’s history of achievement and celebrating the bright future to come!

Questions about SBA’s new WOSB/EDWOSB certification program or WOSB/EDWOSB eligibility? Or need help with a WOSB/EDWOSB contracting legal issue? Email us or give us a call at 785-200-8919.

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