SBA

Subscribe to SBA via RSS

Alex Major, Franklin Turner, Philip Lee, and Marcos Gonzalez co-authored the article “Surviving And Thriving In The Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Program: Maximizing Opportunities For NHOs, ANCs, And Tribes” for Briefing Papers. The article provides an overview of the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program, which provides socially and economically disadvantaged small business owners…

In what is quickly becoming an epic saga centered around the repercussions from the Ultima Servs. case, 8(a) program participants should have received a direct communication from the Small Business Administration (SBA) on Monday (August 21), providing direction on next steps regarding social disadvantage eligibility determinations. As that communication stated, if your firm’s 8(a) eligibility was based on an individual or individual(s) who relied upon the rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage, the firm will now be required to submit a social disadvantage narrative. (Entity-owned firms, such as firms owned by Indian tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, or Native Hawaiian Organizations, will not need to submit narratives; nor will 8(a) participants who previously established their social disadvantage through submission of a social disadvantage narrative.) Each owner claiming disadvantaged status must submit a narrative. This is all consistent with our previous coverage on this topic. What is new, however, is that there is now some more specific guidance on timing and how this process is going to play out.Continue Reading The Continuing Saga of 8(a) Social Disadvantage Eligibility

As many GovCon news junkies following recent events had predicted, the Small Business Administration (SBA) just “temporarily suspended” new 8(a) application submissions. For those of you who haven’t been following along the past two weeks, this critically important development might be a little confusing. Let’s get you up to speed.Continue Reading SBA Cries Time Out! Temporary Suspension of New 8(a) Applications Following Ultima Servs.

In a time of uncertain federal budgets and an increasingly crowded marketplace, contractors of all sizes are on the lookout for ways to enhance their chances of winning federal business opportunities. Step one in this process is, of course, the identification of the government’s needs—which are typically codified in requests for proposals or quotations. Step two (i.e., the “pursuit” phase) involves the preparation of an offer designed to fulfill the government’s requirements. As most government contractors know all too well, this is an often laborious and expensive process that requires painstaking attention to detail. But what happens when there is, in fact, a real devil lurking in those details? What if the RFP or RFQ simply doesn’t make sense? What if the terms are in conflict with one another? What if the government includes requirements that run afoul of a law or regulation? Enter the pre-award protest exorcism.
Continue Reading Recent GAO Decision Demonstrates the Utility of Pre-Award Protests

Each year, Congress presents us in Title VIII of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) a potpourri of procurement reforms, changes, and additions. Some are effective immediately, while some are bound for rulemaking and regulation and surface years from enactment. Some require analyses, reports, and studies which have no immediate impact but provide a roadmap that can and should be used by government contractors in their business planning. Finally, some provisions of the NDAAs just wither away and have no impact whatsoever. Nineteen days before the Trump Administration ended, the US Senate followed the US House of Representatives in overriding the President’s veto of the William (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (H.R. 6395) (FY2021 NDAA), making it law on January 1, 2021.  Happy New Year! As for its Title VIII, the FY2021 NDAA is no different from its predecessors in its procurement potpourri. Here’s a tour of key provisions you oughta know.
Continue Reading Here to Remind You of the Key Provisions of the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act – You Oughta Know!

On April 8, 2020, a final rule (the Rule) was issued amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) and implementing Section 852 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2019 to provide for accelerated payments to DoD’s small business prime contractors and subcontractors supporting DoD contracts. The Rule applies to contracts at or below the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT) – currently $250,000 for DoD contracts – and to contracts for the acquisition of commercial items including commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) items. With an estimated 96% of DoD contracts valued at or under the SAT, the rule appears to reflect DoD’s recognition that it is in the best interests of the government and small business contractors alike to apply this Rule to contracts at or below the SAT and to accelerate payments to small business prime contractors and subcontractors.
Continue Reading DFARS Final Rule Establishes Goal of 15-Day Accelerated Payments for Small Business Contractors

Changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation’s (FAR) small business subcontracting rules have been slow in coming, but the FAR Council is finally catching up with the Small Business Administration (SBA) in making regulatory modifications to implement a few changes intended to help prime contractors reach their small business subcontracting goals as required by Section 1614 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014 (2014 NDAA). Specifically, the changes focus on aiding prime contractors possessing an individual subcontracting plan for a contract with a single executive agency. Now, in such instances, the prime contractor will receive credit toward its subcontracting goals for awards made to small business concerns employed at any tier by subcontractors through their respective subcontracting plans. This should be helpful news to prime contractors.
Continue Reading The FAR Council and the Hare – The Race to Credit for Lower-Tier Small Business Subcontracting

On May 22nd, Practice Group Co-Leaders Franklin Turner and Alexander Major delivered a presentation on Effectively Prosecuting Contract Claims Against the Government to attendees at the annual Native Hawaiian Organizations Association Business Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii. After the presentation, Franklin and Alex also hosted a legal Q&A session for contractors of all sizes.

Section 8(a) of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 authorizes the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) to enter into prime contracts with federal agencies and to subcontract the performance of the contract to qualified small businesses. As most are aware, the 8(a) program is designed to assist “socially and economically disadvantaged small business” concerns that are owned by one or more individuals who are from a socially and economically disadvantaged group and whose management and daily operations are controlled by such individuals. 15 U.S.C. § 637(a)(4)(A)-(B). Included in the definition of “socially and economically disadvantaged groups” are, among others, Indian tribes, Native Hawaiians, and Alaskan Natives, which allows each “maximum practical opportunities” to participate in the government contracting market. But in so doing, those companies must stomach the good with the bad, i.e., they must be prepared to (a) navigate the thicket of regulatory hurdles required to do business with the government and (b) combat potential allegations of fraud if there is a perception that one or more of those hurdles has not been cleared successfully.
Continue Reading Alutiiq False Claims Act Settlement Highlights Significant Government Contract Compliance Risks for Tribal, NHO, and ANC 8(a) Subsidiaries

By now, we have all read the horror stories of federal employees who are either furloughed or forced to work without pay during this historic shutdown. Less well-known, however, is the impact this shutdown has had on small business contractors who rely on federal government contracts for much – if not all ‒ of their revenue. Whereas large government contractors may have ample cash reserves for a situation like this, small businesses are likely less fortunate. In fact, many small businesses hire highly skilled, in-demand personnel specifically in support of their government contracts. Unfortunately, with much of the government shuttered and its coffers empty, these highly skilled personnel, and the companies for which they work, find themselves emptyhanded and operating in the red. Absent a stream of revenue, small businesses cannot pay the employees they specifically hired for the contracts that are now unfunded. While many small business contractors have been able to weather the first few weeks of this shutdown by either diverting these employees to other projects or using vacation or sick leave, many thousands of contractors are now facing grim choices as the shutdown enters its fourth week. Simply stated, these companies are in real danger not only of losing those employees hired to support existing contracts, but of losing the opportunity to leverage those employees to compete for future contracts. To make matters worse, unlike federal employees who will likely receive back pay, most if not all contractors will not be reimbursed for the revenue lost during this time of political chicken.
Continue Reading Small Business, Big Problems: Navigating the Government Shutdown as a Small Business Contractor