SBA Reauthorization Ready For House Vote President Bush signed legislation March 15 to extend authority for Small Business Administration programs until May 21, as the House Government Reform Committee cleared the long-delayed SBA reauthorization bill for a vote by the full House. The bill, H.R. 2802, has been delayed since July because the Government Reform Committee objected to provisions giving new procurement preferences to small firms. Government Reform has jurisdiction over procurement issues. The committee released the bill March 8 (“discharged” it, in parliamentary language) and it was placed on the House calendar, but no date for a vote has been set. The text of the revised bill has not been released and committee staffers did not return calls seeking information. Several leaders of small-business groups said they had not seen the revised language. Earlier, congressional staff sources and advocates said some of the procurement preferences had been dropped in negotiations between Government Reform and the House Small Business Committee, which approved the bill July 23. (SAA, 2/6) Among the provisions that were scrapped, according to the sources: *making small businesses the primary source for all contracts under $1 million, up from the current $100,000; *requiring that small businesses be given 60 days to respond to any RFP for a bundled contract, instead of the usual 30 days. Backers of that provision said it would give small firms time to form teams to bid on the larger contracts. The Government Reform Committee negotiators also objected to a provision giving the Office of Management and Budget the authority to break up bundled contracts. Opponents of the provision argue that it would slow procurement by adding an additional level of review. Under current law, the contracting agency has the final word on whether to break up a contract. The fate of that provision could not be learned. The Small Business Committee’s bill would give 8(a) companies first claim on set-aside contracts. Rick Weidman, legislative director of Vietnam Veterans of America, said House leaders in both parties had assure him that they would not pass any bill that gave other groups priority over service-disabled veterans. Weidman said veterans’ organizations want parity, not preference. The Small Business Committee bill would increase the net-worth limit for owners of 8(a) and small disadvantaged businesses to $750,000, from the current $250,000. It would require owners of HUBZone companies to meet those same net-worth qualifications, in effect turning the HUBZone program into another small disadvantaged business program. HUBZone supporters say the vast majority of certified companies would not qualify under that provision. Ron Newlan, chairman of the HUBZone Contractors National Council, said he had not heard whether that provision was killed. HUBZones are popular with Senate Republicans, and they have pledged to fight any downgrade of the program. The Senate’s reauthorization bill, S. 1375, passed on Sept. 26, contains none of the procurement provisions that are in the House bill, so final language will be worked out in a conference committee.