Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Richard Arnholt outlined three new final rules released by the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council on September 23 that impact government contractors and the procurement regulations made by the Small Business Administration (SBA). The rules attempt to eliminate confusion between separate updates from the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and SBA governing the mentor/protégé program, small business joint ventures, as well as Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) and women-owned small businesses.
One of the final rules expands the regulations governing the mentor/protégé program and impacts joint ventures between large and small businesses. Richard points out that “Given the importance of past performance in award decisions this is a potentially enormous benefit to small businesses that form JVs with large businesses under the mentor/protégé program as they can now rely on the past performance of the large business mentor, something that was already clear in the SBA regulations.”
The full article, “Small Business Developments in Government Contracting Regulations,” was published by Reuters on October 6 and is available online or in the PDF provided.