The Defense Department is permitted to award task or delivery order contracts for a period of up to 10 years under the 2005 Defense Authorization Act. Last year Congress set a five-year limit on those contracts.

DOD issued an interim rule effective Dec. 15 to implement the provision. The law restricts the ordering period to no more than 10 years unless the head of the agency determines that “exceptional circumstances” require a longer ordering period. The performance period of an order may extend one year beyond that and can be extended further with the approval of the senior procurement executive.

Solicitations that were issued under the five-year rule can be amended to 10 years.

The interim rule is DFARS Case 2003-D097/2004-D023 in the Dec. 15 Federal Register. Comments are due by Feb. 14.

Businesses with eight employees or fewer will no longer be required to make a quarterly deposit for unemployment taxes.

Effective Jan. 1, the Internal Revenue Service says employers will be required to make Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) deposits only if their accumulated tax exceeds $500. The current threshold is $100.

Since the maximum amount the IRS collects from employers per employee is $56 per year, employers are currently required to deposit the tax if they have as few as two employees. The new rule will increase that to eight employees and will reduce the burden for more than 4 million small businesses, IRS said.

Business and Professional Women/USA is supporting a lawsuit that seeks to compel SBA to implement the set-aside program for woman-owned businesses that was signed into law four years ago.

The U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce filed the suit Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court in Washington. It asks that SBA be required to establish procedures to determine eligibility for the program within three months. SBA’s response is due Jan. 29.

Without SBA action, BPW/USA President Nancy Hurlbert said, “the federal government becomes yet another boy’s club bearing a large sign stating ‘No Girls Allowed.’”

SBA Deputy Administrator Melanie Sabelhaus said earlier that the agency expects to receive results of a study by the National Academy of Sciences by the end of the year. That study is designed to provide guidance on how to implement the set-aside program.

President Clinton signed the program into law on Dec. 21, 2000. It allows set-aside contracts “in industries historically underrepresented by women-owned small businesses.”

The intelligence restructuring bill passed by Congress aims to boost cybersecurity in government systems. The bill requires agencies to include information security in the planning and acquisition provisions of the Clinger-Cohen Act. It is awaiting President Bush’s signature.

“This provision will proactively address the current threat environment in cyberspace and the growing computer and network interdependence produced by a worldwide explosion in use of the Internet by requiring information security to be an integral part of the federal acquisition process for the long term,” said Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), who was chairman of the House Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census.

SBA is considering granting a waiver of the nonmanufacturer rule in two categories: Sealants Manufacturing. NAICS 325520, and Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing,. NAICS 324110. The agency says no small business manufacturers are supplying these classes of products to the federal government. The effect of a waiver would be to allow dealers to supply the products of any domestic manufacturer on a set-aside contract.

SBA is terminating the waiver of the nonmanufacturer rule for Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturing, NAICS 332992. The agency said it has discovered the existence of a small business manufacturer of that class of products.