Legislation to boost DOD mentor-proteges

      Sens. Joni Ernst, R-IA, and Martin Heinrich, D-NM, introduced legislation to reauthorize and improve the DOD Mentor-Protege Program that expired last year.

      The Defense Small Business Advancement Act (S 1320) is likely to be considered as part of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s upcoming national defense authorization bill for fiscal 2020. Ernst chairs a subcommittee, and Heinrich is a ranking member of a subcommittee, on the Armed Services panel. Reps. Xochitl Torres Small, D-NM, and Lloyd Smucker, R-PA, submitted a companion bill in the House.

      As part of the Senate bill, an independent study would be commissioned to recommend changes to the program based on data.

      Proteges have been awarded $5.4 billion in DOD contracts since the program began in 1991, Ernst said.

Read more at:
Sen. Ernst press release: https://bit.ly/2EnokH3

$106M to NASA SBIRs

      Platforms that can be set up with magnets only, pilotless aircraft and Moon-based solar panels are among the technologies that NASA is advancing in $106 million of awards under the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) Phase II.

      NASA selected 142 proposals for the award agreements, which max out at $750,000 each.

Read more at:
NASA 2018 Selection List: https://sbir.nasa.gov/prg_selection/node/61538
NASA press release: https://go.nasa.gov/2LZtsaB

Vendors owing taxes

      The Army and Navy, Energy, HHS and the VA awarded 1,849 contracts to contractors that reported delinquent federal tax debts over $3,500 each, according to an analysis by the GAO.

      The agencies said they never received notice of those tax debts, and therefore the awarded contracts may have been in violation, the GAO said.

      Seven vendors who owed a total of over $250,000 in taxes were awarded $510,000 in contracts.

Read more at:
GAO Report: https://bit.ly/2wdqfJM

Inside this Edition:

SBA proposes WOSB cert. rule; Wong says certification staff workload may increase 6-fold

8(a) owners allowed $750K

$334B in DOD contracting fraud

Shutdown hit small biz hard

GSA to host FAST in 2020

SBIR/STTR data rights changing

Column: Corporate Transactions and Affiliation Pitfalls

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