The Small Business Administration is working to develop regulations for an expanded mentor-protege program governmentwide. The rules likely will be circulated among agencies this summer, a senior official told Set-Aside Alert.

The new program was authorized by Congress and the president in January.

“The first draft is expected to go out for interagency clearance this summer,” said John Shoraka, SBA associate administrator for government contracting and business development. Following that process, the draft will get a 90-day public comment period, he said.

The new regulations also will encompass women-owned, veteran-owned and HUBZone mentor-proteges, he said. Those programs were authorized previously.

The SBA is still deciding whether, and how much, to delegate authority to other agencies to run their own mentor-protege programs, Shoraka said.

Other issues involve whether to have “open and closed seasons” for applications and what resources are needed to manage the expanded programs, Shoraka said.

“Your comments will be very useful,” he said.