Small Business Contracting Goals: Current State of Agency Goals

In recent years, the Small Business Administration’s small business contracting goals have been on an upswing, with the requirements growing beyond the statutorily required minimums in an effort to encourage federal agencies to increase awards to small businesses, especially disadvantaged businesses. That is, until now. With the current administration’s focus on “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” or Executive Order 14151, there has been a sharp decrease to the small disadvantaged business contracting goals set for federal agencies, but an increase to many of the agencies’ overall small business contracting goals. Read on to learn more about these changes, as well as some potential impacts of the new small business contracting goals.

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White House Proposes Reforms to Increase Dollars to Underserved Small Businesses

Small businesses are often seen as the backbone of the economy. Contained within the category of small businesses are what are known as Small Disadvantaged Businesses or SDBs. Currently, the federal government has a goal to award 5% of its contracting dollars to SDBs. The White House is seeking to triple this number by 2025. The White House recently released a Fact Sheet as to how it intends to meet this goal. So, let’s dive into some of the specifics.

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Regulatory Update: SBA Moves to Clean Up Small Disadvantaged Business Rules

Last month, the SBA moved to edit its regulations, taking a red pen to its current rules governing Small Disadvantaged Businesses (or SDBs), as described in the Federal Register.

This post will highlight what the new rule will mean for current SDBs—and how businesses can become eligible for SDB subcontractor status under the new rule. While the SDB program is still alive and kicking, the rules will be simplified to eliminate a lot of language that is simply no longer applicable.

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