By Pamela J. Bethel The assistance of former O’Riordan Bethel intern Lindsey Thomas in writing this blog entry is much appreciated. The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced its proposed new rules regarding the standards for qualification for research and development awards under the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR). These new rules, however, are...
Tag: Government Contracts
Obama Announces Initiatives to Help Small Businesses Grow
In July 2012, encouraging news came from the White House for companies that participate in federal contracts or would like to do so. This announcement detailed President Obama’s ideas to help with the start-up and operation of small businesses that participate in government contracts. We expect that the president’s initiatives, which the White House referred...
D.C. Area Ranks 3rd in Eastern U.S. for Small Business Climate
The Washington Business Journal is reporting that according to a set of statistical measures that it uses, the D.C. area has the third strongest small business sector among Eastern U.S. cities, behind only Pittsburgh and New York City. According to the survey, the D.C. area had 136,711 small businesses in 2009, evidently the most recent...
Brief Transportation Funding Extension Is Much Better Than None
On March 30, 2012, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives finally approved a 90-day extension that will continue a program that provides federal funds to transportation projects across the nation. Without any action, the funnel of federal money would have ended at close of business March 31, with a devastating impact on those projects. Nearly everyone...
New Bill Attempts to Improve Small Business Contracting Programs
A bill just introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Nick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), who chairs the House Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce, has been termed an attempt to solve some problems in the federal government’s programs to increase opportunities for small businesses to participate in government contracts. The bill, known as the...
Is This the Right Way to Give Small Business a Bigger Piece of the Pie?
By Carol L. O’Riordan Increasing the percentage of federal government contracts that are allocated to small business is a worthy goal. But is the best method of achieving it the automatic imposition of monetary penalties on officials whose agencies don’t meet the new standard? What about the automatic reduction of the agency’s budget? Rep. Sam...
Will Obama Reorganization Plan Be a Boon to Small Businesses?
By Carol L. O’Riordan On January 13, 2012, President Barack Obama announced a proposed major government reorganization that would combine the Small Business Administration with five other agencies to create a new, yet unnamed umbrella agency that handles issues of commerce and trade. This step requires the approval of Congress, which at this point appears...
Obama QuickPay Plan for Small Business: Less Than Meets the Eye?
As part of the jobs package that he presented to Congress earlier this month, President Obama announced a new “QuickPay” initiative that would reduce the deadline for federal government payments to small business prime contractors from 30 days to 14 days. Many such contractors are often plagued by cash flow problems, even though they have...
Finding One’s Way Globally — Some Current Examples
In previous blog posts, we discussed some of the challenges and opportunities that often face U.S. companies that are considering doing business abroad. Here are some examples that we are familiar with and that can illuminate the complex decision-making process that these companies can encounter. First, a West Coast contractor was experienced in working with...
Finding One’s Place in an Increasingly Global Economy
In prior postings, we have explored the issues faced by businesses struggling to identify their place in an increasingly global economy and the kinds of myths that often cloud their decision-making. We have focused on factors like contract provisions, language choice, risk assessment, and risk mitigation, that companies and their lawyers are usually comfortable discussing....