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Photo of Alexandra Barbee-GarrettPhoto of Olivia LynchPhoto of Amy Laderberg O'Sullivan

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

Photo of Peter J. EyrePhoto of Olivia LynchPhoto of M.Yuan Zhou

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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On June 27, 2023, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) reported its estimate that SBA disbursed over $200 billion of potentially fraudulent COVID relief, including Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.  These possibly fraudulent loans represent at least 17% of all EIDL and PPP funds—or 21%…

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On May 25, 2023, the General Services Administration (GSA) and Small Business Administration (SBA) announced the launch of the 8(a) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Pool Initiative. 

This Initiative advances President Biden’s commitment to equity and, in particular, the administration’s goal to increase contracts to small disadvantaged businesses (SBD).

Under the Initiative, GSA is establishing an 8(a) MAS Pool that will include new and existing MAS 8(a) contractors who are current, active 8(a) Program participants and whose contracts have been accepted into the pool by SBA.  Continue Reading GSA and SBA Move Forward with Plans to Establish an 8(a) MAS Pool in July 2023

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On September 23, 2022, the FAR Council issued a number of final rules amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to reflect changes previously implemented by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to its regulations on women-owned small businesses and HUBZones, as well as to clarify policy on joint ventures in small business contracting. 

The final rule on HUBZones (87 FR 58232) aligns the FAR’s definition of a HUBZone in provisions and clauses such as FAR 2.101, 52.212-3, 52.219-1, 52.219-8 and 52.219-9 to refer to the requirements described in 13 C.F.R. § 126.200 and SBA’s designation of a HUBZone small business concern in the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS). This is in line with the SBA’s recent revisions to the HUBZone regulations via which SBA annually certifies HUBZone entities in order to allow such entities to remain eligible for HUBZone contracts for the entire year rather than such entities being required to represent their status for each offer. Higher-tier contractors are required to confirm that a subcontractor representing itself as a HUBZone small business concern is certified by SBA as a HUBZone small business concern by accessing SAM or by accessing DSBS. The rule also allows contracting officers to award HUBZone set-aside and sole-source contracts at or below the simplified acquisition threshold. Continue Reading FAR Updated to Reflect Revised SBA Regulations

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Major changes to the way small business contractors obtain, and agencies evaluate, past performance references are set to arrive on August 22, 2022. On July 22, 2022, the Small Business Administration (SBA) published a final rule implementing provisions of Section 868 of National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. The rule provides two new methods for small business contractors to obtain past performance ratings upon which they may then rely when submitting offers on prime contracts with the Federal Government.

First, a small business offeror may rely on the past performance of a joint venture of which it is a member, as long as the small business was involved in performance of the joint venture’s contract(s).  To that end, when submitting a proposal, the small business must: (1) identify the joint venture; (2) specify the joint venture’s contract(s) the small business elects to rely upon; and (3) detail the duties and responsibilities the small business carried out as part of the joint venture. Provided these requirements are met, the procuring agency shall (per 13 C.F.R. § 125.11) consider the past performance of the joint venture when evaluating the past performance of the small business concern. Continue Reading SBA to Implement New Methods for Evaluating Expanded Sources of Small Business Past Performance

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On July 29, 2021, the Small Business Administration announced in an FAQ that it is discontinuing any reliance on the Loan Necessity Questionnaires, which the SBA had required of each borrower, that together with its affiliates, received Paycheck Protection Program loans with a principal amount of $2 million or greater. As we’ve previously discussed,…

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This week’s episode covers a new Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk, the final DFARS provision on contract closeout, a new SBA decision involving a mentor-protégé joint venture, and a FedRAMP update, and is hosted by partners Peter Eyre and Olivia Lynch. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a biweekly podcast that provides a…