What did Congress cut in final NDAA? 25% small biz goal, more

Several small biz items purged from final version of bill; NDAA also strengthens focus on American-made goods

      The Senate on Dec. 15 approved the final version of the $768 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal 2022, and President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Dec. 27.

      While the final package included several significant items for small business federal contractors (see Dec. 17 edition of Set-Aside Alert), Congress also removed several important items that had been previously included in the House version of the bill in September. Those provisions were dropped when a joint committee of House and Senate leaders negotiated the final NDAA in recent weeks.

     What was removed from final NDAA?

• Rejected: A provision to increase the government’s small business procurement goal to 25%, up from 23%;
• Rejected: Raising the goal for awards to Small Disadvantaged Businesses to 15%, up from 5%;
• Rejected: Increasing the procurement goal for Women-Owned Small Businesses to 7%, from 5%;
• Rejected: Raising the procurement goal for HUBZone small firms and for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned small firms to 4%, up from 3% currently;
• Rejected: Exempting from Category Management procedural requirements all Tier Zero contracts, including 8(a) contracts;
• Rejected: Extending the HUBZone pricing preference to unrestricted task orders under unrestricted multiple-award contracts; and
• Rejected: Raising sole-source thresholds for certain 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSBs and WOSBs to $10 million for manufacturing contracts and $8 million for other contracts.

     Domestic preferences in 2022 NDAA

      The final NDAA also strengthens Buy American preferences and provisions to reduce foreign influence over the federal supply chain, including:

• Section 802 prohibits the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) from China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea. However, DOD Secretary may waive the prohibitions;
• Section 847 orders that DOD must assess reliance on goods and materials from China, North Korea, Russia or Iran and prepare a plan to reduce that reliance;
• Section 848 bans purchases from goods produced in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This is in response to alleged human rights violations in that area;
• Section 851 tightens restrictions on purchasing of printed circuit boards from China;
• Under Section 853, the General Services Administration must conduct an assessment of whether another e-commerce portal is more protective of supply chain risks and counterfeit risks; and
• Section 855 requires that companies with DOD contracts over $5 million must disclose if any work is being performed in China, and if so, identifying the location of the work in China.

     Previously reported provisions

      As previously reported by Set-Aside Alert, the small business provisions in the final NDAA included:

• HUBZone status appeals to be heard by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Hearings and Appeals;
• After a firm loses status in a protest determination it must update SAM.gov status within two days;
• Certain contracts are exempted from periodic inflation adjustments to the acquisition-related dollar threshold.
• A data collection pilot on best practices on streamlining awards for innovative technology projects is extended;
• DOD agencies must submit a report on unfunded priorities in SBIR/STTR;
• DOD must report on the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification framework’s effects on small business; and.
• DOD agencies must report on Phase III SBIR and STTR funding, topics of research and highest-performing projects.

More information:
NDAA text: https://bit.ly/3IACIuZ

What did Congress cut in final NDAA? 25% small biz goal, more

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