Section 864 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 authorized the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) to decide all appeals from Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) status protest determinations, which are currently decided by SBA’s associate administrator of Government Contracting and Business Development. The SBA recently
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in AttainX, recently sustained a bid protest where the protester argued that the agency’s evaluation was inconsistent with the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) regulations requiring agencies to consider the experience of the individual members of the joint venture if the joint venture itself does not demonstrate experience. This article
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently published a final rule on its 2019 interim final rule that adjusted monetary-based industry size standards (i.e., receipts- and assets based) for inflation which has occurred since 2014. Notably, the SBA’s recent rulemaking also included three important interim final actions.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently issued a final rule that provides two new methods for small business government contractors to obtain past performance ratings to be used in support of offers on prime contracts with the federal government. The purpose of the rule is to address a common problem faced by small businesses
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently issued a final rule adopting a 24-month — as opposed to the current 12-month — average to calculate a business’s number of employees for eligibility purposes in all SBA programs that contain employee-based size standards. SBA’s new rule — which takes effect July 6, 2022 — is discussed
In 2022, there will inevitably be an uptick in the number of appeals of Small Business Administration (SBA) loan decisions in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) context. This is due simply to the passage of time, to the point where a significant number of PPP recipients have applied for or will be applying for forgiveness
The Department of Defense (DoD), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently proposed a series of noteworthy amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that impact Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) concerns and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) concerns. The key proposed amendments to the FAR — which
The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently issued an interim final rule that extends the deferment period for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) borrowers who appeal final SBA loan review decisions.
Prior to the issuance of this interim final rule, the rule for appeals of final SBA loan review decisions on PPP loans provided that appeals by
In 2016, the Small Business Administration (SBA) updated its regulations pertaining to limitations on subcontracting. Five years later, on August 11, 2021, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council finally followed suit by publishing two final rules that largely mirror the SBA’s rules. This is a welcome development for federal contractors, as the discrepancy between the
The Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Necessity Questionnaire may soon be a thing of the past. Last fall the SBA began requiring lenders to provide certain questionnaires to PPP borrowers that received loans of $2 million or more. The questionnaire was meant to help assess the veracity of a borrower’s certification that