SmallGovCon Week In Review: April 4 – 8, 2016

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For me, the theme this week has been “rock stars.”  I began the week with my friends at APTAC–the rock stars of procurement counseling.  And last night, I enjoyed 3 1/2 hours of the rock stars of, well, rock stars, as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the Sprint Center in Kansas City.

Even as the refrain from “Badlands” keeps running through my head (not a bad thing!) I haven’t forgotten that it’s Friday–and that means it’s time for the SmallGovCon Week In Review.  In this week’s edition, Samantha Bee offers a pointed but humorous take on the pace of progress for WOSBs, a contractor is accused of SDVOSB fraud in a $23 million case, the SBA is proposing to consolidate the SBIR and STTR Policy Directives, and much more.

  • Samantha Bee gives her opinions about the government hitting its 5% WOSB goal: “Progress is progress, even if it’s a negligible crumb that’s 20 years too late” [YouTube]
  • A government contractor is accused of racking in $23 million through contracts it did not deserve after falsely claiming to be a service-disabled veteran-owned business. [Courthouse News Service]
  • Thousands of single-award and definitive contracts are at risk of being consolidated into a much smaller number of multiple-award contracts. [Bloomberg Government]
  • Contractors are bracing for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that will determine if they could face the prospect of heavy penalties and greater scrutiny for breaching regulations. [LegalNewsline]
  • The SBA’s proposal to revise the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer program Policy Directives is now open for comments. [Federal Register]
  • Start your engines: the $5 billion second generation of the VETS 2 GSA governmentwide  acquisition vehicle exclusively made up of service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses will be open for competition before you know it. [FederalTimes]
  • A shorter, more straightforward process for small businesses called FASt Lane cuts the time it takes to get new IT suppliers onto the Schedule 70 portal from 110 days to 45 days. [FCW]