Senate Approves New Bundling Restrictions The Senate has passed the SBA reauthorization bill, including new restrictions on contract bundling, setting up what could be a contentious conference committee with the House later this fall. The House version of the bill, now awaiting a vote, includes a number of controversial provisions, especially those affecting the 8(a) and HUBZone programs, that are not in the Senate bill. Staffs of the House and Senate Small Business Committees were unable to iron out the differences, said Craig Orfield, spokesman for the Senate committee. The Senate bill would require contracting officers to conduct market research to justify any consolidated contract worth more than $5 million in the Defense Department and $2 million in civilian agencies. The Bush administration’s anti-bundling strategy sets the threshold at $7 million in DOD; $5 million for NASA, Energy and GSA; and $2 million for all other agencies. The bill uses the term “consolidation” instead of “bundling” and applies the rules to new contracts as well as existing ones. This “clos(es) a loophole in the definition that has been widely used and detrimentally affecting small businesses,” Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the committee’s ranking minority member, said in a statement. Committee Chair Olympia Snowe backed off a provision to create small business set-asides under GSA schedules and govern-mentwide acquisition contracts. Her committee voted to set aside all orders between $2,500 and $100,000 for small firms, the same set-aside that exists in individual contracts. Snowe said there was opposition to that provision. Instead, the Senate adopted an amendment requiring buyers on the schedules and GWACs to consider offers from at least two small businesses on each order. Snowe also withdrew a provision that would have tied contracting officers’ annual bonuses to their performance in meeting small business goals. The bill directs SBA to assign at least one procurement center representative to each major contracting office. Currently there are just 47 PCRs covering 255 contracting offices. Those individuals are responsible for promoting set-asides and other contracting opportunities for small businesses. The House has taken a different approach to combating bundling. The pending House bill also gives 8(a) companies first priority in set-aside contracts. (See a comparison of the two bills, next story.) Among the House bill’s most controversial provisions is one that would require owners of HUBZone businesses to be disadvantaged individuals. Only 18% of the more than 8,000 HUBZone-certified firms are also certified as small disadvantaged businesses, according to SBA’s PRO-Net database. Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), a key HUBZone supporter, urged Senators to fight any provision that would harm the program. The Senate bill would provide permanent funding for SBA’s Women’s Business Centers; the administration had proposed eliminating funds for the centers after they had been in operation five years The Senate bill also increases the authorized level of SBA-guaranteed loans. Funding for those loans is set in annual appropriations bills. The Senate passed the bill, S. 1375, by unanimous consent on Sept. 26. It reauthorizes SBA programs for three years, rather than the six years the administration requested.