SmallGovCon Week in Review: November 18-22, 2024

Happy Friday, SmallGovCon readers and have a great Thanksgiving next week! We won’t be posting our weekly roundup next week due to the holiday, but we’ll catch up on any missed news the following week.

In the meantime, enjoy this week’s federal contracting news. Also be sure to enjoy the family, friends, and food at your Thanksgiving table and maybe catch a football game. We will be back, with another edition of the week in review, in December. Some of the key stories this week including an update on small business past performance evaluation for affiliates, and updates on GAO bid protest stats.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: November 4-8, 2024

Hello, blog readers! We want to extend a special thank you to all the veterans and active-duty military as we approach Veterans Day. Thank you for your service. Enjoy the weekend.

It’s Friday and it’s time for another week in review. With the recent election behind us, the focus shifts to addressing major issues facing the new Congress. Also this week, SBA announced a record number of certifications for diverse-owned small businesses in FY24. SBA unveiled plans for a streamlined certification process in FY25, aimed at reducing bureaucratic barriers for small firms. SBA also issued a proposed rule to expand the small business rule of two.

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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.

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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!

Are Mentor-Protégé Joint Ventures Just Too Successful, Asks SBA

SBA recently issued a proposed rule purportedly concerning the HUBZone Program and its regulations–but actually, covering a bevy of other discussions and proposed changes relating to size, SBA’s other small business socioeconomic programs, and even teaming. Specifically, regarding teaming, SBA revealed that it has apparently decided to take a deeper look into the immense success of mentor-protégé joint venture teaming. It is also requesting comments on this concern, as well as potential policy changes for joint venturing in SBA programs, more generally.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: September 9-13, 2024

Happy Friday the 13th! We hope you have a good week. This week has been busy in the federal government contracting world with multiple developments highlighting key areas of government procurement, spending transparency, and small business support. There are updates on a new federal spending bill, but also concerns about a shutdown, something contractors will be watching closely.

You can read more about these topics in the articles below. Have a great weekend and be careful out there today on Friday the 13th!

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: September 2-6, 2024

It’s Friday and it’s time for our week in review. We hope you had a wonderful Labor Day and were able to enjoy some time with friends and family. Now it is time to transition into fall and football season which we are very excited about here at SmallGovCon! We hope you have a great weekend.

This week in federal government contracting news saw some interesting storis about IT and cyber security, the feds avoiding fraud payments, and a potential boost for WOSB contracts.

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