Contracting items in new bill

Centralized certification; Sole source caps, more

     Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, is leading the effort to pass a comprehensive bill to reauthorize the Small Business Act that includes 14 significant provisions affecting small business federal contractors.

      For example, one provision would allow the Small Business Administration to set up a new centralized certification office to handle all small business certifications--including Small Business, 8(a) Business Development, HUBZone, Women-Owned (WOSB) and Service-Disabled-Veteran-Owned (SDVOSB). The new office would handle all certifications for those programs. The legislation sets a fee of $300 for applying to get certified.

      Other contracting-related provisions include:

• Sec. 703 allows contracting officers to award sole-source contracts to HUBZone firms, SDVOSBs and Economically-Disadvantaged WOSBs and for small firms owned by women in substantially underrepresented Industries. The sole-source deals would be allowed up to $10 million for firms in manufacturing industries and $8 million for all other firms. Previous caps were $7.5 million and $4 million, respectively, for HUBZones, $6.5 million and $4 million for WOSBs, and $5 million for SDVOSBs;
• Sec. 704 would remove option years in the award price of a contract. This would have the effect of allowing more sole-source awards because only the base year would count in the total, allowing larger awards to reach the sole-sourcing caps;
• Sec. 705 allows small business to calculate whether they meet the small business size standard on the basis of three years averaging, rather than five, for both receipts-based and employee-based size standards;
• Sec. 706 states that the SBA will have representation on the FAR Council;
• Sec. 707 states that the SBA shall determine the industries underrepresented by women every five years, for the purpose of certifications as an WOSB;
• Sec. 708 modifies the requirements for unconditional ownership for WOSBs and for “minority-owned small business concerns”;
• Sec. 709 states that federal agencies must set an accelerated payment goal of paying small business contractors within 15 days of invoicing;
• Sec. 710 is titled “Opportunity zones as HUBZones.” This section would designate existing HUBZones as Opportunity Zones. However, a spokeswoman for Rubio said this section was removed in a chairman’s amendment on July 22. Set-Aside Alert previously reported there are about 16,500 HUBZones and 8,700 newly-designated Opportunity Zones.
• Sec. 711, regarding mentors and proteges, aims to set up a process to “consistently measure the percentage of work performed and the level of control maintained by the mentor and by the protege”;
• Sec. 712 orders Procurement Scorecard improvements;
• Sec. 713 outlines changes to the Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization; and
• Sec. 714 orders formation of a group to strengthen small businesses participating in the defense industrial base.

More Information:
Draft Senate Bill text: https://bit.ly/2ykWIz8

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