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On February 24, 2025, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a “Day One” memo outlining SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler’s priorities. 

The “Day One” memo highlights SBA’s focus on the Trump administration initiatives—including implementing President Trump’s executive orders; mandating that all non-exempt employees return to full-time, in-office work; and working closely with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in accomplishing accountability, transparency, and efficiency.  SBA will relocate regional offices “currently based in sanctuary cities” to what it characterizes as “less costly, more accessible locations in communities that comply with federal immigration law.”Continue Reading SBA Issues “Day One” Memo – with a Particular Emphasis on Rooting out Fraud

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On December 17, 2024, the Small Business Administration (SBA) published a final rule amending multiple aspects of all of the SBA’s small business size and status programs.  Among other notable changes, SBA (1) introduced a new rule that changes the impact of a recertification as other than small or as other than the relevant small business status following a merger or acquisition, and (2) introduced a standardized set of permissible negative controls for minority shareholders in all types of small businesses, thereby significantly expanding the controls investors may have in service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs), women-owned small businesses (WOSBs), and participants in the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program. Continue Reading Brace for Impact: Final SBA Rule Changes to Recertification and Negative Controls Will Reverberate in GovCon M&A and Investment Market

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On August 8, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced a $6.3 million False Claims Act settlement with West Coast Dental Administrative Services LLC (formerly West Coast Dental Services Inc.) and its founders and former owners due to seven improper second-draw Paycheck Protection Program loans received by West Coast Dental and affiliated dental offices. Continue Reading California Dental Offices Settle FCA Allegations Regarding Second-Draw PPP Loans for $6.3M

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On August 5, 2024, in United States ex rel. Relator LLC v. Howard D. Kootstra and Golden Empire Mortgage, Inc., Case No. 1:22-cv-00924-TLN-CDB (E.D. Cal.), the District Court for the Eastern District of California granted a motion to dismiss allegations that a mortgage lender made false or fraudulent statements on its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application in violation of the False Claims Act where the relator could not overcome the FCA’s public disclosure bar.Continue Reading FCA Complaint Based on PPP Information Pulled from PandemicOversight.gov Website Barred

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SBA Proposed Rule to Update Various SBA Small Business Programs

This special edition covers the SBA’s August 2024 proposed rule to update and clarify various small business programs, and is hosted by Yuan Zhou and Olivia Lynch. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government…

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On August 23, 2024, the Small Business Administration (SBA) posted a proposed rule to update and clarify aspects of various SBA small business programs, including but not limited to the HUBZone Program and 8(a) Business Development Program.  This proposed rule followed SBA’s July 22, 2024 notification of tribal consultation meeting and request for comments (which Crowell covered here). Continue Reading SBA Proposed Rule Would Enact Material Changes as Well as Promote Regulatory Uniformity Across Size and Status Programs

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On October 5, 2023, the Information Security Oversight Office issued Joint Notice 2024-01: Joint Ventures and Entity Eligibility Determinations (Joint Notice) with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and in coordination with the Department of Defense (DoD) to provide government contractors with additional guidance concerning joint ventures (JVs) seeking access to classified information (an Entity Eligibility Determination (EED) or Facility Clearance (FCL)).  Among other things, this Joint Notice clarifies that companies should not rely on the SBA’s regulations for the proposition that a small business JV will never need to hold an EED. Continue Reading New Guidance on Joint Venture Classified Information Access Determinations

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This week’s episode covers a new DFARS provision about Commercial Solutions Opening, a bid protest decision about timeliness, significant developments in the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program, and updates to the Davis-Bacon Act and Related Acts, and is hosted by Peter Eyre, Olivia Lynch, and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a…

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The Small Business Administration has begun outreach to current participants in its 8(a) Business Development Program regarding the impact of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee’s July 19, 2023 decision enjoining SBA from applying a rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage to individuals of certain racial and ethnic groups.

For 8(a) Participants whose program eligibility is based upon one or more individuals that relied upon the presumption of social disadvantage based on their membership in one of the identified groups (such as Asian Pacific Americans, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Subcontinent Asian Americans, and Native Americans), such participants will be required to establish their individual social disadvantage by completing a social disadvantage narrative.  No new 8(a) contracts can be awarded to these entities until SBA affirmatively determines that the individual(s) upon whom eligibility is based has established personal social disadvantage. Continue Reading Current Participants in the SBA 8(a) Program – Be on the Lookout for Outreach on Social Disadvantage

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Although the COVID-19 public health declaration officially ended in May, government investigations of pandemic relief fraud are from over. As observed in a recent report by the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, investigations will likely ensue for years to come in light of Congress’s decision to extend the statute of limitations to ten…