SBA will guarantee surety bonds on contracts up to $5 million — $10 million in some cases – under an interim rule effective July 22.

The rule implements a provision of the Recovery Act, which authorized the temporary increase in bond guarantees from the previous limit of $2 million. The increase expires on Sept. 30, 2010.

The House has passed legislation that would require civilian agencies to take an inventory of their services contracts and determine whether the work should be insourced.

The provision is part of the $24 billion fiscal 2010 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, H.R. 3170, that was approved on July 16.

Congress ordered the Defense Department to conduct a similar inventory in 2008, but DOD has not reported its findings.

The Veterans Affairs Department says it will temporarily halt 45 IT that are either behind schedule or over budget. The projects’ combined annual budget is more than $200 million.

Project managers will have to come up with new plans before they can proceed. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has ordered a review of 30 of the department’s major IT projects.

About one out of six high-impact, high-tech firms was founded or co-founded by an immigrant, according to a study released by SBA’s Office of Advocacy.

More than half of these immigrant entrepreneurs hold a masters degree or a doctorate and three-fourths are U.S. citizens. On average they have lived in this country for more than 25 years.

The study defines high-impact firms as those with sales that have at least doubled over the 2002-2006 period and which have significant employment growth during that time.

The report, written by David Hart, Zoltan Acs and Spencer Tracy, Jr., is available at www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs349tot.pdf.

Treasury’s Bureau of the Public Debt issued this sources sought notice on July 9:

“The Contractor shall conduct two, 3-hour, Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life. Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being created on the spot. The contractor shall have the ability to create cartoons on the spot about BPD jobs. The presenter shall refrain from using any foul language during the presentation.”

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND, was not amused. “Of all the agencies, the Bureau of Public Debt should know that there is very little that is funny about today’s economic conditions,” he said in a statement.

Eight days later the Bureau said it would not proceed with the procurement because it was not “an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.”

SBA has waived the nonmanufacturer rule for 13 Watt CFLs, 26 Watt CFLs, and Occupancy Sensors Dual, NAICS code 335110, product service code 6240. The agency says it knows of no small business manufacturers that provide the products to the government.