Participants in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program have faced a hard year—using up one of their nine years in the program during a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty. For participants that are about to graduate, things are even bleaker. Normally, those firms would have been preparing to compete without the ability to
Amy Laderberg O'Sullivan
Amy Laderberg O'Sullivan is a partner in the firm's Washington, D.C. office, a member of the Steering Committee for the firm's Government Contracts Group, and former chair of the firm’s Diversity Council. Her practice involves a mix of litigation, transactional work, investigations, and counseling for corporate clients of all sizes and levels of experience as government contractors. On the litigation side, she has represented corporate clients in bid protests (agency level, GAO, ODRA, Court of Federal Claims, Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, as well as state and local bid protests in numerous jurisdictions), size and status protests before the U.S. Small Business Administration, claims litigation before the various Boards of Contract Appeals, Defense Base Act claims litigation at the Administrative Law Judge and Benefits Review Board levels, civil and criminal investigations, and she has been involved in complex commercial litigation.
SBA’s Recent Rulemaking “Consolidation of Mentor Protégé Programs and Other Government Contracting Amendments”
Last year, on November 8, 2019, the Small Business Administration (SBA) published a comprehensive proposal to revise various aspects of its regulations in response to President Trump’s executive order calling for the reduction in unnecessary and burdensome regulations. Given the nature of the proposed revisions and the timing of the release, SBA provided an extended…
Changes to the SBA’s Mentor-Protégé Programs
The Consolidation of the 8(a) Business Development and All Small Mentor-Protégé Programs
The headline change from this rule is the consolidation of SBA’s decades-old 8(a) Business Development (BD) Mentor-Protégé Program with the more-recently created All Small Mentor-Protégé Program, which had significantly expanded protégé eligibility in 2016.
SBA highlighted that the driving force for this consolidation…
The Anticipated SBA Evaluation of PPP Borrower’s Economic Necessity Certification
From the inception of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), borrowers questioned the meaning of the economic necessity certification that the Small Business Administration (SBA) required borrowers to make in the PPP loan application. While the SBA provided some definition to this certification in such Frequently Asked Questions as FAQs 31, 37, and 46, uncertainty remained.…
PPP Borrowers May Require SBA Consent or Escrowing of PPP Loan Balance in Connection with “Change of Ownership” Transactions
On October 2, 2020 (almost two months after the August 10, 2020 commencement of the acceptance period for forgiveness applications), the Small Business Administration (SBA) released an SBA Procedural Notice (the “Notice”) concerning required procedures for change of ownership of an entity that has received PPP loans (the “PPP Borrower”). Under the Notice, SBA approval…
SBA Issues PPP Loan Forgiveness FAQ, Providing Further Guidance
On August 4, 2020, the Small Business Administration (SBA) released a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) addressing numerous technical issues on PPP Loan Forgiveness. On August 11, 2020, the FAQs were updated to include additional guidance for recipients of both PPP Loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
The following are the major takeaways from the…
Funds Today, Investigation Tomorrow: SBA OIG Warns of Serious Concerns of Rampant Fraud with COVID-19 Relief Funds and Calls for Immediate Action
On July 28, 2020, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report titled, “Serious Concerns of Potential Fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program Pertaining to the Response to COVID-19.” The report identifies and summarizes OIG’s “serious concerns” of potential fraud and calls for “immediate attention and…
Coronavirus Update: The SBA Discloses Recipient Identity and Other Information for PPP Loans of $150,000 and Above
On July 6, 2020, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has made publicly available various types of information about all Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, and targeted media scrutiny has immediately followed. For loans of $150,000 and above, the SBA has released the loan range (e.g., $150,000 – 350,000, $1,000,000 – 2,000,000, $5,000,000 – 10,000,000) and…
GAO Clarifies Timeliness of Preaward Protests Challenging Solicitation Amendments
In Computer World Services Corporation, GAO sustained a protest challenging the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Coast Guard’s corrective action taken in response to an earlier sustained protest by CWS. In its original protest, CWS successfully challenged a task order award; in response, the agency informed offerors via e-mail that it intended to remove…
Coronavirus Update: SBA and Treasury Release New Forgiveness Applications and Revise Interim Final Rules to Conform to New PPP Flexibility Act Requirements
On Wednesday June 17th, SBA and Treasury issued a revised Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness application implementing the extended 24-week “covered period” and the reduction in payroll cost limitation on forgiveness from 75% to 60% of costs, per the PPP Flexibility Act of 2020 enacted June 5, 2020. In addition to revising…