SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 23-27, 2023

Happy Friday and happy Halloween! Nicole Pottroff enjoyed presenting at the recent ICBSSHOW this week and enjoyed talking to many of our readers. But it’s also the last weekend to prepare and to stock up on candy for those trick or treaters. Hope the federal contracting stories from this week aren’t too scary.

This week in federal government contracting news, the Office of Management and Budget is setting a goal of awarding 13% of federal contract spending to “small, disadvantaged businesses” for fiscal 2024 and the SBA kicks off National Veterans Small Business Week, October 30-November 3, with lots of events taking place across the country. You can read more about these announcements and more in the articles below. Have a great weekend and have fun carving those pumpkins!

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 16-20, 2023

Happy Friday! The Autumn trees are really showing off their colors this past week here in Lawrence, Kansas. We are grateful for some nice fall temperatures after the heat of summer. The city is bustling with activity and there seems to be some sort of fall festival every weekend. Also, our attorney-author John Holtz had a good time at the Meet the Buyers Fall 2023 Conference. Thanks to Daniel Kuchar for inviting us!

If you have some down time from all that apple picking and festival going, here’s a few articles that we found very informative this week. Of note are some insights into the draft NDAA and challenges facing SBA. Have a great weekend!

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 9-13, 2023

Happy Friday the 13th! It seems very fitting to have a Friday the 13th fall in the month of October, right? The pumpkins are being gathered from the patches in preparation of carving and I see Halloween decorations everywhere I go.

It’s also conference season at SmallGovCon.com. I was in Iowa last month, John Holtz is headed to Nebraska next week for the Fall Meet the Buyers Government Contracting Conference and Nicole Pottroff will be going to Oklahoma the following week for the ICBS Conference. Please come out to see them if you are in the area.

Some interesting articles this week, including new cybersecurity rules, small business updates, and the continuing resolution. We hope you have a safe Friday the 13th!

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: September 24-29, 2023

Happy Friday. It’s time to say goodbye to September and welcome in October already. Where does the time go?

As I’m sure you all are aware, this week’s federal government contracting news is all about the possible government shut down and its impact on federal services and federal government contractors. Lawmakers have today and tomorrow to come to some sort of agreement. We’ve included some articles below with additional information on this situation as well as other federal government contracting news. Have a great weekend.

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No Work No Play: SBA Reminds Contractors of HUBZone Employment Requirements

One of the pillars of the SBA’s HUBZone program is the location of a company’s employees. In August of this year, SBA released an Information Notice emphasizing important points about where employees reside, and HUBZone entity’s efforts to employ the necessary amount of employees residing in HUBZone areas. While SBA’s HUBZone policies don’t have the weight of law as compared to a regulation, the HUBZone office will generally enforce this sort of guidance quite strictly. So don’t think it’s just a suggestion. As these are crucial elements of eligibility, it is important for all HUBZone businesses to be aware and reminded of SBA’s expectations.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: September 11-15, 2023

Happy Friday, Readers. We hope you had a great week. We are starting to get a little fall weather around these parts, which is exciting. Fall has also brought the prospect of a potential government shutdown and what the impact will be, as reflected in some of these articles. The budget process is complicated, so we are all waiting to see how it shakes out.

We’ve also included some other articles on topics such as OASIS+ and cybersecurity, we hope will be of interest to you below. Have a great weekend.

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UPDATE: SBA Opens Certify Portal for Social Disadvantage Narrative Uploads by Current 8(a) Participants Not Pending 8(a) Award

As we have previously written about in several recent 8(a) articles and updates, which can all be found on our 8(a) landing page here, SBA had previously told all 8(a) participants not pending an 8(a) award to “sit tight” and wait for the go-ahead to submit their social disadvantage narratives. Well, according to SBA’s just-released Certify Help Desk Guidance, it appears that go-ahead was just given to all the (justifiably) anxious 8(a) participants out there hoping to confirm their continued 8(a) Program eligibility as soon as possible.

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