On July 18, 2018, the House Small Business Committee approved H.R. 6369, the Expanding Contracting Opportunities for Small Business Act, and H.R. 6382, the Clarity on Small Business Participation in Category Management Act. Among other provisions important to women, the bills seek to increase opportunities for women-owned and other minority-owned businesses.
Regarding the news, Vivian Ling, House Small Business Committee – Majority stated:
“This is a very, very modest proposal to update the size formula from a 3-year look-back to a 5-year look-back. I discussed a number of alternatives with SBA, and after much discussion, this was the only option they were comfortable with.”
H.R. 6369 essentially takes three major actions. The first action is that option years are no longer included in the award price for sole source contracts.
To account for this fact, the maximum award prices were changed from $5M to $7M for contract opportunities assigned an SIC code for manufacturing and from $3M to $4M for all other contract opportunities. Exclusion of option years was applied to sole source contracts, those controlled by service-disabled veterans, women, and women in substantially underrepresented industries.
The second action is that the SBA is to notify the House Small Business Committee and the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee when it has established two programs: one to certify concerns of female small business owners, and one to certify concerns of service-disabled veteran small business owners.
This is a significant change requiring certification of “real” WOSBs. Right now the program is self-certified, except in cases using sole source contracts when the contracting officer is required to verify that the business is certified by one of the four designated WOSB certifiers.
The third program is that the GAO will carry out a study to ensure that sole source awards are properly classified and are being awarded to eligible firms. This report is to be delivered to Congress within 18 months after the certification programs begin. The SBA must also report to Congress with the actions it took following the GAO study.
H.R. 6382, otherwise known as the “Clarity on Small Business Participation in Category Management Act of 2018,” amends the Small Business Act to require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to report certain information to the Congress and to the President, and for other purposes.
Specifically it requires reporting on:
(i) the total amount of spending government wide in such designation;
(ii) the dollar amount of contracts within such category awarded to each of the following—
(I) HUBZone small business concerns;
(II) small business concerns owned and controlled by women;
(III) small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans; and
(IV) socially and economically disadvantaged small business concerns.
These changes are a big deal for small firms, especially WOSBs.
