As we shared in a previous post, on July 14, 2017 the House passed H.R. 2810, the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act.
Focusing on small businesses, the NDAA is comprised primarily of two main pieces of legislation. We’ll cover one in this post, and follow up with a separate post about the other.
H.R. 1773, the Clarity for America’s Small Contractors Act of 2017
This act amends the Small Business Act to improve reporting on small business goals, achieve uniformity in procurement terminology, clarify the role of small business advocates, and for other purposes.
It modernizes the Small Business Act to ensure that the language used is clear and consistent across federal procurement programs. Heaven knows that the lingo used in legislation is designed for lawyers and lobbyists, and certainly not for the actual small businesses they are addressing.
It strengthens the small business advocates within the Small Business Administration (SBA), who routinely work with Department of Defense contracts by promoting competition and making sure laws are followed, including the NDAA. We know that some small business advocates are not as strong advocates, and legislation that empowers them can only improve things for everyone involved.
The bill implements common sense reforms to ensure transparency and accountability by requiring that important information be provided that clearly shows where taxpayer dollars are being spent on which small business programs. This has always been an issue – small business impact is not easy to track, and then you have complications like mid-tier businesses and sometimes active opposition from the large businesses. Again these are good things – not fixing legislative issues, but strengthening the processes.
Within H.R. 1773, the following bills are found:
- R.1597 – Commercial Market Representatives Clarification Act – This bill amends the Small Business Act to specify the principal duties of Commercial Market Representatives, government contracting staff stationed at area Small Business Administration (SBA) offices and reporting to specified senior SBA officers.
- R.1641 – To amend the Small Business Act to clarify the responsibilities of Business Opportunity Specialists, and for other purposes. – This bill amends the Small Business Act to declare that the exclusive duties of a Business Opportunity Specialist reporting to the senior official (or designee) appointed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) with certain SBA loan responsibilities, including the procurement program for small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans and the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) program, shall be to implement specified SBA loan programs, and complete other duties related to contracting programs.
- R. 1693 – Improving Contract Procurement for Small Businesses through More Accurate Reporting Act of 2017 – This bill amends the Small Business Act to require the Small Business Administration to report to the President and Congress an analysis of the number and dollar amount of prime contracts awarded by federal agencies each fiscal year to small business concerns.
- R.1640 – To amend the Small Business Act to ensure uniformity in procurement terminology, and for other purposes. While this might seem the least important, fixing definitions so everyone is on the same page is a big deal.
All told, these changes are mostly about the processes that govern our small business management, but truly do make incremental improvements that will make a difference.
Stay tuned for a separate post about the other important NDAA FY18 act that affects small businesses.
