The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2017 passed Congress and was signed by the President in December 2016.
The committee report passed both Chambers of Congress, resolving differences with the White House. According to Chairman of the House Small Business Committee Steve Chabot (R-OH), these common-sense contracting and acquisition reforms will open new doors for small businesses in the coming year and set the stage for additional reforms in the new Congress.
Here is a summary of what’s ahead for small business:
Small business goals and transparency
- Amends the Small Business Act to ensure that the goals established by the Act are measured against the total contract dollars spent that year rather than allowing SBA to exclude up to 20 percent of all spending
- Ensures that the goals established by the Act are measured against the total contract dollars spent that year rather than allowing SBA to exclude up to 20 percent of all spending
- Amends the Small Business Act to require the SBA to annually share a list of regulatory changes affecting small business contracting with the entities responsible for training contracting personnel
Duties of the OSDBU and contracting officers
- Rewords section 15(a) of the Small Business Act as plain English so that small businesses and contracting agencies will better understand the current requirements of the law
- Amends section of the Small Business Act to remedy an internal SBA decision that prevents SBA’s procurement center representatives from reviewing consolidated contracts if the contract was set aside or partially set aside for small businesses, even if the acquisition strategy harmed the ability of small businesses to compete for contracts
- Allows procurement center representatives (PCRs) to review those contracts, which should improve opportunities for small firms
- This provision was amended to include contracts awarded and performed overseas as being exempt from small business goaling (this amendment covered a tiny fraction of contracts that weren’t otherwise already exempt)
- Allows the Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) to review agency purchases made using government credit cards to ensure compliance with the Small Business Act
- Last year that in one agency over $6 billion in such purchases were made without regard to statutory requirements
- Increased micro-purchase threshold
- The micro-purchase threshold will be $5,000, which is a $1,500 increase over all civilian agency thresholds
- This allows agencies to purchase small ticket items without having to go to the time, trouble and expense of competitively bidding each purchase
Subcontracting
- Ensures that subcontracting goals are accurately reported and implement GAO recommendations on how goals are set
Mentor-Protégé
- Adds a new paragraph to the Small Business Act creating a pilot program that allows small businesses to apply for past performance credit for work performed as a first-tier subcontractor
- Amends section 831 of National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 to allow the Department of Defense to rely upon SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals to make size determinations
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)
- Institutes a 5-year SBIR/STTR reauthorization, instead of a yearly reauthorization
- The extension of these programs to 2022 will prevent these popular programs from expiring
SDVOSB definitions unified
- Unifies the definitions and regulations applicable to the government-wide and Department of Veterans Affairs-specific contracting programs for veterans and service-disabled veterans and moves appeals from the VA’s program to the Office of Hearings and Appeals at the SBA
Cybersecurity for small businesses
- The conference report also includes a bill to provide cybersecurity resources to small businesses through Small Business Development Centers
- This bill gives small businesses access to tools, resources, and expertise to help protect their sensitive electronic data from cyber threats
- The bill calls for SBA and DHS to work with Small Business Development Centers to provide assistance to small businesses
New small business prototyping program
- Establishes the Nontraditional and Small Contractor Innovation Prototyping Program, created to “design, develop, and demonstrate innovative prototype military platforms”
- We discussed this in detail in a separate blog post
Restrictions for LPTA procurements
- Restricts the government’s overuse of lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) contracts
- We discussed this in detail in a separate blog post
Stay tuned for further discussion!
