By Taimur Rabbani and Andrew Campbell SBA HUBZone Program Since 1997, the Small Business Administration’s Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Program has spurred economic development in non-metropolitan, underdeveloped and impoverished areas by providing federal contracting assistance to small businesses located in these areas. The HUBZone program, unlike other federal contracting assistance programs like SBA’s 8(a)...
Tag: HUBZones
A Change That Would Simplify and Improve SBA’s HUBZone Program
By Carol L. O’Riordan A HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) is a geographic area that benefits from a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) program that was established in 1998. The program helps small businesses in urban and rural communities gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities. The SBA regulates and implements the HUBZone program by...
New SBA Mentor-Protégé Program Creates Opportunities for Small Business
On July 25, 2016, the federal Small Business Administration issued a final rule – effective August 24, 2016 – establishing a mentor-protégé program for all small business concerns. Although this new program resembles the existing mentor-protégé program for 8(a) firms, it is a distinct program that permits all small business concerns to participate in mentor-protégé...
A Compliance Checklist for Federal Contractors — Part 1
We may not often think of them this way, but government contractors are perhaps the most heavily regulated sector of our economy. Any company that wishes to work steadily in the federal contracting field needs to be aware of dozens of statutes that govern its behavior. In fact, it will take more than one...
No, the Government Contract Preference Programs are Not Broken
By Carol L. O’Riordan We believe that the various government contract programs that give a degree of preference to disadvantaged groups are a good idea, and we work hard to put our clients in a position to benefit from them, but we also recognize that they can be abused. Two years ago, we wrote in...
D.C. Making Changes to Its Small Business Preference Rules
On February 26, 2015, the District of Columbia’s Department of State and Local Business Development (DSLBD) made an announcement requesting public comments on recent changes made last fall to the D.C. local law concerning contract preferences for small businesses and other “Certified Business Enterprises” (CBEs). These changes were made by the Small and Certified Business...
SBA Changes Contract Qualification Rules for Small Businesses
As we noted in an earlier blog post this month, the Small Business Administration has released a proposed rule that would affect, in several ways, the operation of several special business preference programs for federal contracts. These include the 8(a) program for disadvantaged small businesses, the HUBZone program for businesses in historically underutilized business zones, and...
New SBA Rule Would Help Small Businesses Qualify for Federal Programs
By Carol L. O’Riordan The Small Business Administration has released a proposed rule that would affect the operation of several special business preference programs for federal contracts, such as the 8(a) program for disadvantaged small businesses, the HUBZone program for businesses in historically underutilized business zones, and the program to aid businesses run by service-disabled...
SBA Proposes New Mentor-Protege Program for Small Businesses
The Small Business Administration, which has the mission of expanding federal contract opportunities for various types of small businesses while continuing to work to prevent fraud in these programs, is proposing to establish a government-wide mentor-protégé program for all types of small businesses, parallel to the existing mentor-protégé program under the SBA’s 8(a) business...
SBA Plans Major Changes in HUBZone Program
By Pamela J. Bethel This is the third blog post in our series about new federal regulatory initiatives that are on tap for the first half of 2014. Last May, in an action that was somewhat embarrassing to the Small Business Administration, that agency made a decision to strip D.C.-based Strong Castle Inc. of its...