Local construction contractors would receive new contracting preferences for Department of Defense contracts under the version of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the House of Representatives on September 23.
During floor debate on the 2022 NDAA, the House agreed to an amendment proposed by representative Andy Kim. The amendment requires, to the extent practicable, that DOD give a preference to construction contractors who hire local employees. The amendment also requi
The organizational documents for a business seeking certification under a SBA socio-economic program can play an important part in a company demonstrating its eligibility under the SBA’s requirement for control by the company’s owners, such as a service-disabled veteran or disadvantaged owner. Unlike some of the SBA’s requirements for eligibility, the manner in which a program applicant or participant might run afoul of this requirement are not always obvious. Typical provisions in the organiza
It’s already October! Can you believe it? The leaves on our trees are starting to turn beautiful shades of yellow, red and orange and the temperatures are finally starting to cool down after a very hot and humid summer.
A lot has been happening this week in federal government contracting as contractors braced for a government shut down. Here are a few articles that we think are noteworthy.
Have a great weekend and enjoy that fall weather!
Contracting Community Braces for Possib
The version of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the House of Representatives on September 23 would increase the government’s small business prime contracting goal from 23% to 25%.
The House-passed version of the 2022 NDAA would also increase the prime contracting goals for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, HUBZone small busnesses, small disadvantaged businesses, and women-owned small businssses.
During floor debate over the NDAA, the House adopte
Newcomers to the federal marketplace are often surprised when they learn that eligibility for the VA’s SDVOSB and VOSB preference programs are based on the status of the contractor’s owners–and have nothing to do with how many veterans the contractor employs.
While the SDVOSB/VOSB eligibility rules aren’t changing, VA Contracting Officers now have authority to give preference to offeors that employ veterans on a full-time basis. A new VA Acquisition Policy Flash provides guidance to VA Con
Happy Monday, Readers. We hope you had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the start of fall. Here are some newsworthy articles from the federal government contracting world. Enjoy and have a great week!
Biden administration gives federal contractors until Dec. 8 to comply with vaccine mandate [FedNewsNet] DoD’s drug supply chain is shaky, DoD IG report adds to growing evidence of that [FedNewsNet] Labor Department Seeks Advice on Increasing Equity in Contracting, Other Programs [Govexe
The SBA’s HUBZone program can be a confusing program to understand and comply with. Keeping on top of the regulations requires keeping up on legislative and program changes on a revolving basis. The SBA has recently frozen the HUBZone maps and changed principal office rules. In a corresponding move, the SBA has updated the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section for the HUBZone program to clarify some details on HUBZone Program rules.
Here are some key points you should know about this lat
For years, it had been difficult for joint ventures to get Facility Security Clearances to go after DoD contracts where a facility clearance was required. The DoD and many contracting officers had long required that the joint venture entity itself, rather than each individual joint venture member, have the FCL. SBA thought it had fixed this problem when it updated its joint venture rules in November 2020 to eliminate the need for the joint venture to have an FCL, as we wrote at that time. But Do
The nonmanufacturer rule is one that is commonly misunderstood in the federal government contracting realm. But it is also one we encounter quite often in our role assisting federal contractors.
On September 21, please join my colleague, Steven Koprince, and me as we dive deep into the nonmanufacturer role, tackling the ins and the outs of the rule and answering some of your questions surrounding it. The webinar will be hosted by our friends at the Iowa State University CIRAS PTAC, and it is
Happy Friday, Readers. It’s sad that summer is coming to an end but the good news is that fall is upon us which means it is time for cool weather, falling leaves, and football! It seems everyone is filled with optimism at the start of the season. Here’s hoping your favorite team is victorious and in between games here’s a few interesting articles on what’s going on in federal government contracting this week.
Have a great weekend! Go Team!
Class Deviation—Limitations on Subcontractin
In February 2017, the SBA announced that applications for its new All Small Mentor-Protégé Program were being processed, on average, in just eight days. Fast forward four-and-a-half years, and the SBA’s mentor-protégé application processing timeline has gotten just a wee bit longer.
As in, 105 days.
Unfortunately, that’s no typo. If you’re looking to establish an SBA-approved mentor-protege relationship, you better be willing to wait more than three months for your application to
You may recall a post of ours back in April 2021, where we discussed a little-known change to SBA’s size determination rules that occurred in October 2020. SBA created an exception, at 13 C.F.R. § 121.404(g)(2)(iii), to the usual “size is determined at offer date” rule. Now, prior to award, when a small business is part of a merger or acquisition after it makes an offer on a solicitation, the business has to recertify its size, and depending on when that acquisition occurred, if the business is
Welcome to Friday, SmallGovCon readers! Now that the weather is cooling off a little, we hope you’re able to enjoy the great outdoors a little more. However, before you head outside, maybe you’d like to take a few minutes to check out some articles we’ve selected for you about federal government contracting. We’d especially like to turn your attention to our first featured article about National PTAC Day coming up next week with a special shout-out to them for all the great work they do suppo
NAICS codes are limited in what they can challenge, but can have a powerful effect on a procurement. A NAICS code appeal can challenge the size limit attached to a specific government procurement. This can level the playing field by limiting to smaller businesses, or expand the size of businesses that are able to compete. So, it’s good to know a NAICS code appeal works.
1. What is a NAICS Code?
A NAICS code is a six digit code assigned to various industries under the North American I
Like any other offeror, a joint venture must be registered in the System for Award Management. And, as one joint venture recently learned the hard way, if a JV is not registered in SAM by the award date, the missing registration could prove costly.
The GAO’s bid protest decision in Continuity Global Solutions-Secure Me WLL Security, JV, B-419875 (Aug. 12, 2021), involved a State Department RFP for the provision of local guard services at the United States embassy in Bahrain. The RFP wa
Happy Labor Day weekend, Readers! Here are 5 fun facts about Labor Day according to Google:
-The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
-By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of
For many contracts, large businesses must establish and have the government approve a subcontracting plan that details the goals and efforts the large prime contractor will take to award subcontracts to various types of small businesses. Well, how does the government hold large businesses accountable for these goals? The FAR will soon have a final rule addressing good faith efforts to comply with a small business subcontracting plan.
Back in late 2019, SBA updated its own rules on subco
Hello and happy Friday to all of our readers. It’s an exciting and busy time in Lawrence, Kansas with all of the college students flowing back into our city. It was also another busy week in federal government contracting. Enjoy the articles that we have put together for you. Have a great weekend and stay cool.
GSA hits 11 years of top marks on small business procurement scorecard [FedNewsNet] Army Issues Solicitation for $10B IT Enterprise Solutions-4 Hardware Contract Vehicle [GovCon
SBA’s requirement that 8(a) participants maintain a bona fide place of business in the geographic location of any 8(a) construction contracts has been an encumbrance for many federal contractors–even prior to the global pandemic. But fortunately, SBA has recently recognized the additional challenges that COVID-19 has caused for 8(a) contractors seeking to comply with this rule. And as such, SBA has suspended this requirement in an effort to help our nation’s small disadvantaged businesses during
Congress is at work on the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act–major annual legislation that often includes significant changes to the laws impacting government contractors.
This year’s NDAA promises to be no different. Among potential changes: the House Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems has proposed to establish a pilot program to help transition more Phase II SBIR/STTR awardees to Phase III.
The Subcommittee proposes to add a Section 822 t
Given the amount of competition in most solicitations, the ability of a contractor to receive feedback on its proposal can provide valuable information to help the contractor hone its response to best address the key factors sought by the agency in its solicitation. On those rare occasions when an agency reopens its solicitation and provides feedback to the individual offeror’s initial proposal, the contractor is provided such an opportunity–except when the contractor gets left out of the feedba
It has been a long time coming, but the Department of Defense, in conjunction with the GSA and NASA, are finally issuing a final rule amending the FAR guidance regarding limitations on subcontracting. In this post, we are going to explore just what these changes are and what they mean for government contractors such as yourself. The hope is this brief summary and analysis will provide you some insight as to just what the new rules do.
If you can believe it, this latest rule change is bas
A quick update on CIO-SP4. NITAAC has issued amendment number 11 to CIO-SP4. It moves the deadline to August 27, and takes out some confusing language about small business teams.
Specifically, it has removed the language saying: “The small business prime must demonstrate how they will comply with the LOS by including in their Small Business Teaming Agreement the specific level of effort and how each will ensure compliance with 52.219-14.”
That is now deleted.
That is the only chang
Happy Friday to all of our SmallGovCon readers and we hope you had a great week! This week saw some interesting federal contracting developments, such as several announcements from the SBA including an announcement to increase the amount of federal contracting dollars that go to small, disadvantaged businesses as well as the appointment of key Small Business Administration staff. Jay Bonci was also sworn in as the Air Force CTO, this week.
Read on for other news in federal government contrac
The number of small businesses receiving government contracts dropped yet again in Fiscal Year 2020–and the four-year decline is 12.7%.
In its FY 2020 goaling scorecard, the SBA reported that 45,661 distinct small businesses received contracts in the top 100 NAICS codes. The previous fiscal year, 46,661 distinct small businesses received contracts. Four years ago, when SBA first started including this statistic in its annual reports, the number stood at 51,866. Clearly, the numbers are
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