The Department of Defense (DoD) recently issued a formal amendment to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to increase the threshold for requiring contracting agencies to issue sole-source justifications of federal contract awards to companies participating in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. The amendment increases the threshold from $22 million to $100 million.
With this change — which was previously the subject of a DoD class deviation — agencies are not required to issue a formal justification and approval for non-competitively bid 8(a) contracts if the award amount is $100 million or less (as compared to the previous threshold of $22 million or less). This change provides contracting agencies greater freedom to award non-competitively bid contracts to 8(a) contractors.
The new DFARS provision — which is located at DFARS 206.303-1 and implements § 823 of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act — is effective immediately.
If you have any questions about this noteworthy development or the 8(a) program in general, please feel free to contact Aron Beezley or Sarah Osborne.