The Government Accountability Office has ruled that a contractor may be required to recertify its small business eligibility when bidding on a task order under an IDIQ contract.

Small businesses that are awarded IDIQ contracts are generally considered to be small on that contract for up to five years, unless they merge or are acquired; they are required to recertify if an option is exercised.

When the Air Force advertised a task order on the 8(a) Stars governmentwide acquisition contract, it specified that offerors had to recertify their small business status. The Air Force said it wanted to be sure it could claim the task order toward its 8(a) contracting goal.

Enterprise Information Services Inc. protested that the recertification requirement was unreasonable. GAO disagreed, citing an SBA rule that “gives contracting officers the discretion to request size certifications for individual orders, but does not require them to do so.”

The decision is Matter of Enterprise Information Services Inc., file B-403028, available at www.gao.gov.

The House has passed legislation that would require certain Department of Homeland Security procurements to “Buy American.” The bill would require DHS to follow of the Berry Act, which covers commercial items such as cotton, wool, silk and other synthetic fabrics, for clothing, tents and tarpaulins. It says DHS should specify only American-made goods unless it is determined that doing so would be inconsistent with U.S. obligations under an international agreement.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

SBA has awarded contracts for 10 regional economic development and job creation efforts through a new pilot program, “Innovative Economies.” The pilot program supports small businesses participation in regional economic “clusters”—collaborations between small businesses, the public sector, economic development and other organizations.

The funds can be used to provide services, including mentoring and counseling for small businesses and to attract more small business participation.

The 10 Innovative Economies were chosen from 173 applicants:

Agriculture Innovation Cluster in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito, CA
Carolinas Nuclear Cluster in North and South Carolina
Connecticut Hydrogen-Fuel Cell Coalition in Connecticut and other northeastern states
Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions in Mississippi and Louisiana
Illinois Smart Grid Regional Innovation Cluster
NorTech in northeastern Ohio
Upper Michigan Green Aviation Coalition (UMi-GAC)
Defense Alliance of Minnesota
San Diego Advanced Defense Cluster
Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation in Huntsville, AL.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a draft version of the form that small businesses and tax-exempt organizations will use to calculate the small business health care tax credit when they file income tax returns next year.

Both small businesses and tax-exempt organizations will use the form to calculate the credit. A small business will then include the amount of the credit as part of the general business credit on its income tax return.

The IRS has posted a draft of Form 8941, as well as other information about the credit, at www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220809,00.html.