HUBZone firms share wish list

      A small business contractors group is sharing ideas for reforming the HUBZone program to address the government’s lack of progress on meeting the HUBZone small business procurement goal.

      “Most federal agencies fall well short of meeting the 3% spending goal for HUBZone firms,” Delali Dzirasa, owner of a small software firm in Baltimore, MD, testified on behalf of the HUBZone Contractors National Council at a Senate committee hearing on June 12.

      To improve the situation, Dzirasa suggested a number of changes to the HUBZone program endorsed by the national council:

• Apply HUBZone Price Evaluation Preference to Task Orders: Since the government is using more IDIQ contracts, it would improve opportunities for HUBZone firms if the price evaluation preference was used on task orders.
• Clarify “Attempt to Maintain”: If a HUBZone firm goes below the 35% employee residency requirement, it does not lose contracts, but it cannot bid on new contracts and must “attempt to maintain” the 35% residency continuously. The language needs to be clarified and the term added to Dynamic Small Business Search to identify firms with this status, Dzirasa said.
• Change to Annual Recertification: Currently HUBZone companies must verify eligibility at the time of bid and at the time of award and this “creates an undue and complicated compliance burden,” Dzirasa said.
• Eliminate “Reasonable Expectation” Requirement: Currently, in order to award a sole-source HUBZone contract, a contracting officer must show that there is no “reasonable expectation” that offers would be received from two or more HUBZone small firms. The language is confusing and should be removed, Dzirasa said.
• Stop Over-Counting Small Business Procurement Spending: If a contract is awarded to a small business through a small business set-aside, and the firm is also women-owned, an 8(a) and a HUBZone firm, the government gets to count that spending toward its goals in each of those categories. In other words, it counts the same spending multiple times. That practice gives an erroneous view of small business spending, Dzirasa contended, saying it should be stopped and credit given only in the category in which the set-aside was solicited.
• Add the SBA to the FAR Council: Currently, there frequently are delays between the time SBA makes a regulation final and the new rule is included in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). This results in confusion and delayed implementation of regulations. “Adding SBA to the FAR Council could help accelerate solutions to discrepancies between the agency and interpretations of the FAR,” Dzirasa said.

More Information:
Dzirasa testimony: https://bit.ly/2LPKw1b

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