On June 7, 2018, the House Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight, and Regulations (“Subcommittee”) held a hearing to examine the resources of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) for veteran-owned small businesses (“VOSB”), specifically the Veterans First Contracting Program (“Vets First”). The Subcommittee invited testimony from the National Veteran Small Business Coalition, the American Legion, and two service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (“SDVOSB”). At the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Trent Kelly said that despite VA’s authority to assist . . . Read More
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Small Business HUBZone Program and Government Contracting Programs and Consolidation of Mentor-Protégé Programs The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announces that it is holding tribal consultation meetings in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, concerning the regulations governing the 8(a) Business Development and all Small Mentor-Protégé programs and the HUBZone program. SBA seeks to reduce unnecessary or excessive regulatory burdens in those programs and to make them more attractive to procuring agencies and small businesses. Testimony . . . Read More
On March 26, 2018, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a direct final rule that changed the wording of 13 C.F.R. § 126.200(b)(1) to allow indirect ownership by U.S. citizens of companies in the HUBZone program. The stated purpose of the rule change is to align more accurately the rule with the underlying statutory authority. Prior to this change the HUBZone rules required that a HUBZone company be “unconditionally and directly owned” by U.S. citizens. The rule took effect . . . Read More
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Epic Systems v. Lewis that employers may, as a condition of employment, require employees to sign arbitration agreements containing class action waivers. The Court rejected the NLRB’s position that such agreements infringe on employees’ right to engage in collective action under the National Labor Relations Act. Instead, the Court gave weight to the Arbitration Act, which, Justice Gorsuch wrote, supports “pretty absolutely” rights for employers and employees to contract for arbitration. While arbitration is often touted as . . . Read More
On May 31, 2018, GAO sustained a protest filed by Oracle America, Inc. (“Oracle”) challenging the Army’s entry into a follow-on production other transaction agreement (“OTA”) with REAN Cloud LLC (“REAN”). Oracle alleged that the Army did not properly exercise its authority in entering the follow-on production OTA with REAN. GAO agreed. The OTA was for the migration of legacy software applications to a commercial cloud service provider. REAN is an Amazon Web Services partner. The initial award was $950 . . . Read More
In the Matter of ASIRTek Federal Services, LLC, SBA No. VET-269 (2018), SBA found that the apparent awardee of a contract set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (“SDVOSB”) was ineligible as an offeror because its joint venture agreement (“JVA”) failed to conform to the regulatory requirements. On appeal, SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (“OHA”) upheld the finding of ineligibility, noting that the appellant’s JVA was defunct because it was dated more than a year before the solicitation was . . . Read More
The Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (“Board”) recently held that a contractor’s claim could serve as its complaint when appealing the denial of that contractor’s claim. In K.O.O. Construction, Inc. v. Department of Veterans Affairs, CBCA 6072, 2018 WL 1899353, the appellant, K.O.O. Construction, Inc. (“KOO”) filed a nineteen-page, single-spaced, certified claim with various exhibits with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”). VA did not respond to the claim, and KOO filed an appeal of VA’s “deemed denial” of . . . Read More
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING Contractors Oppose Proposed Limit on Federal Bid Protests According to an article in govexec.com , the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 22, 2018 began its markup of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, and a contractors group was pushing committee leaders to reject a Pentagon proposal to curb time-consuming bid protests. Seeking to eliminate what some senators call “frivolous” protests and what acquisition officials call “forum shopping,” the Defense Department this spring pressed for limiting the ability . . . Read More
Presented by Jon Williams and Kimi Murakami Click here to view the recorded session. Session Description: When looking to make an investment in or purchase a small business contractor, it is critical to understand the potential impact of your corporate strategy under SBA’s small business rules. SBA has a unique rule called the “present effect rule” which can create adverse consequences for mergers and acquisitions, stock options, and convertible securities – even before the transaction is finalized or the option . . . Read More
