In 2016, SBA established the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program, or ASMPP, enabling mentors of any size to provide business development assistance to small protégé businesses to enhance the protégé’s ability to compete for federal contracts. Since then, the ASMPP has served as a powerful tool for many businesses and, as of August 1, there were 885 active mentor-protégé agreements.
Recently, however, the SBA’s Office of the Inspector General released a report highlighting some opportunities to
The year is flying by. Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is next week. While my colleagues and I prepare to overdose on turkey and stuffing (and my personal Thanksgiving favorite–copious amounts of pie), our focus today is on the top stories that made government contracting headlines this week.
In this edition of SmallGovCon Week In Review, all nine bid protests filed against the TRICARE award were denied, the FAR Council proposes a rule to clarify how Contracting Officers are to award 8(a) sol
Happy Memorial Day! Please take some time this weekend to remember those veterans who have sacrificed for our country.
And amidst the fun of kicking off summer this weekend, you can read up on some of the latest happenings in government contracting. In this Memorial Day edition of the SmallGovCon Week in Review, you can read about GSA’s new e-commerce platform, a new federal civilian cloud platform, and whether cyber security failures can lead to a false claims case.
How to suppor
SBA has issued a final rule updating some of its rules relating to the 8(a) Program. The final rule will have an impact on some aspects of ownership and control requirements for the 8(a) Program, including providing some flexibility for change of ownership and making some 8(a) set-aside processes a little cleaner. The rule would also allow for populated joint ventures between similarly situated joint venture members.
We wrote about the proposed rule last year. Below are some of the key take
5 Things has previously discussed 8(a) Program basics and eligibility requirements. But the 8(a) Program isn’t the only socioeconomic program benefiting small businesses. In this post, we’ll begin exploring another crucial program for small businesses: the Historically Underutilized Business Zone—or HUBZone—program.
Here are five things you should know about the HUBZone program.
What is the HUBZone program?
At its most basic, the HUBZone program is designed to provide economic assistance
The SBA Office of the Inspector General has taken it upon itself to look at the SBA’s programs and activities in order to determine what risks the SBA may face in the 2020 Fiscal Year. It appears that the OIG did not like what it found. The examination found multiple risks and problems associated with SBA programs, including the 8(a) program, the WOSB program, and SBA’s small business contract goaling methods.
The SBA OIG report focused on many aspects of the SBA, but the portions of t
This past week, SmallGovCon continued to provide important updates and insights related to how federal contractors can prepare and support their business during this unprecedented response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Because we’ve provided a lot of information, I’ve summarized what our authors discussed in the past week, as well as providing a roundup of other news in the government contracting arena.
Here’s what our authors wrote about:
Details on the new Paycheck Protection Pr
SBA’s regulations for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses create a rebuttable presumption that a service-disabled veteran doesn’t control the company if the veteran is unable to work normal business hours in the company’s industry.
The rule sounds reasonable at first blush, but as a recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals case demonstrates, the SBA may apply the presumption even to a one-person start-up with no contracts. Not many people can afford to quit their day jobs bef
SDVOSB joint venture agreements will be required to look quite different after August 24, 2016. That’s when a new SBA regulation takes effect–and the new regulation overhauls (and expands upon) the required provisions for SDVOSB joint venture agreements.
The changes made by this proposed rule will affect joint ventures’ eligibility for SDVOSB contracts. It will be imperative that SDVOSBs understand that their old “template” JV agreements will be non-compliant after August 24, and that SDVOSBs
Under some federal government contracts, the contractor is required to pay its workers a wage dictated by a wage determination issued by DOL. But what if, during contract performance, DOL raises the applicable wages? Under the FAR, contractors can recover their increased costs. Naturally, however, contractors have to prove them.
Before discussing a recent CBCA decision, let’s look at the relevant FAR provision: FAR 52.222-43. Under that provision, the Government will adjust the contract
Joint ventures and small business subcontracting are two issues near and dear to the hearts of many small business federal contractors. Well, the Federal Acquisition Regulation will soon be updated with respect to both of these topics. The new rules will align with SBA’s rules and remove any inconsistencies. Let’s dive in!
Joint Ventures
It has taken nearly four years for the FAR joint venture rules to be updated, but it’s good that they will be. The proposed FAR rule on joint ventur
The Federal Acquisition Regulation has officially been updated to increase the micro-purchase threshold and the simplified acquisition threshold, effective August 31, 2020. Various federal agencies had already increased the thresholds through deviations, but this rule makes it official across the board. A few additional thresholds will increase due to inflation. Read on for the details on how this could impact federal procurement.
The proposed rule to increase the acquisition thresholds
Love was in the air this week with Valentine’s Day falling on Wednesday. If all the chocolate and flowers distracted you from the latest and greatest in government contracting news, you’re in luck. It’s time for our weekly roundup, the SmallGovCon Week in Review.
In today’s edition, a California father-and-son team pleaded guilty to using false financial statements and other lies in order to win more than $4 million in federal contracts, one commentator says the Department of Homeland Securit
It’s back to school week here in Lawrence. Kind of like parents doing a back to school shopping spree, the federal government’s spending calendar is also seeing more activity. The fourth quarter of the government’s fiscal year regularly sees a big spike in government spending.
Here is a roundup of some interesting happenings in government contracting world, including the draft STARS III IT solicitation for small businesses and new IRS procurement methods.
GSA announces STARS III IT con
Small businesses will be able to joint venture with one another more often under a new SBA rule.
As part of a recent major rulemaking, the SBA will allow two or more small businesses to joint venture for any procurement without being affiliated with regard to the performance of that requirement.
Under the current regulation, two or more small businesses may be affiliated with one another if they joint venture for a particular procurement, depending on that procurement’s value. In fact, the
It’s mid-October, and my Chicago Cubs are still playing. After a thrilling comeback win over the Giants, the Cubs will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers starting tomorrow in the National League Championship Series. Will this be the year that the Cubs break the Billy Goat Curse and allow their fans to think about The Simpsons instead of the 2003 playoffs when they hear the word “Bartman”?
Time will tell. But as the baseball playoffs move forward, I’m keeping my eyes on government contracting ne
The government’s policy encouraging prompt payment to small business subcontractors has been extended to December 31, 2017.
In a Memorandum issued on January 11, 2017 by the Office of Management and Budget, OMB Director Shaun Donovan ordered that the popular policy be extended to the end of the year, and provided additional direction to agencies regarding their quarterly reports on implementing the accelerated payment policies.
The OMB’s accelerated payment policy was originally implemented
We’ve been enjoying summer out here in Lawrence. And many of our Koprince professionals are taking a little time to themselves for summer vacation. We hope our readers are able to do the same thing! Whether you’re getting back from a vacation or working regular hours, here’s our weekly roundup of interesting news from the federal government contracting to keep you updated on what’s been happening lately.
This week in the federal government contracting world, there is some interesting news, i
The Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship recently held a hearing focusing on the role small businesses will play in NASA’s renewed focus on going back to the Moon and then on to Mars. We have recently touched on the growing impact space exploration is having on small businesses, and vice versa, but this dedicated hearing prompts a closer look at the opportunities small businesses will have for working on space exploration.
Two NASA representatives spoke at the hearin
SBA proposed a major revamp of how it will interpret and enforce the HUBZone program’s rules back in October of 2019. We wrote about the major changes in a couple of posts (here and here) as well as some of the common misconceptions that SBA cleared up as part of the proposed rule.
Well, the wait is over. SBA will release the final rule November 15 and the new rules will become effective on January 1, 2020.
Some of the big changes detailed in these earlier posts are:
Annual r
You might think that if you send an email with the delivery receipt option and the delivery receipt comes back, the email was delivered. But when an offeror submits a proposal by email, does a delivery receipt mean that the agency necessarily received the proposal in its inbox?
At least under the facts of one recent GAO bid protest, the answer was “no.” In that case, the GAO held that an email delivery receipt wasn’t sufficient to demonstrate that the agency received the electronic proposal.
OHA recently confirmed that it lacked jurisdiction to decide a NAICS code appeal regarding a GPO procurement, even though that procurement was conducted on behalf on the VA. OHA’s dismissal was based on the fact that GPO, a legislative branch agency, is not subject to the same rules as the executive agencies.
OHA’s decision in Veterans4you, Inc., SBA No. NAICS-6021, (Aug. 13, 2019), involved a U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) procurement of suicide prevention gunlocks with printe
NAICS code appeals, while little known, can be an extraordinarily powerful tool when it comes to affecting the competitive landscape of government acquisitions.
Case in point: in a recent NAICS code appeal decision issued by the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals, the appellant prevailed–and obtained an order requiring the contracting officer to change the solicitation’s size standard from 500 employees to $15 million.
OHA’s decision in NAICS Appeal of Hendall Inc., SBA No. NAICS-5762 (2016)
An offeror’s proposal must conform to all technical requirements of an agency’s solicitation–even if the offeror believes those requirements to differ from standard industry practice.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that an agency appropriately rated an offeror’s proposal as technically unacceptable because the offeror failed to conform to certain material solicitation requirements; the offeror’s insistence that those requirements varied from standard industry practice was irrele
The HUBZone contracting program, while well-intended to provide economic and employment opportunities in otherwise low income, high unemployment areas, must nonetheless connect HUBZone firms with government contracts, the overwhelming majority of which are not located within a HUBZone.
If HUBZone firms are to experience growth, they will need to utilize the local labor force in the area where the contract is to be performed, in addition to utilizing the labor force residing in their HUBZone to
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