By Pamela J. Bethel The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has upheld the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) business development program, which provides for contracting preferences to small business owners, against a constitutional challenge that the program involves impermissible racial classifications. The decision in Rothe Development, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense and...
Tag: Minority and Women Inclusion
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...
What Are the Real Issues With Minority Contracting?
Governing magazine, a prestigious nonpartisan publication that covers state and local government issues, just published in its April 2016 issue a critical article that indicates that in some parts of the country, programs intended to help women- and minority-owned contractors are failing to do so successfully and that often, these contracts actually benefit nonminority companies....
Our Clients at M. Luis Construction Receive Small Business Accolade
The O’Riordan Bethel Law Firm is proud to join the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce in congratulating Cidalia Luis-Akbar and Natalia Luis of M. Luis Construction Co. on being awarded the Chamber’s Small Business Leader of the Year Award for 2015. The award will be presented at the MCCC’s 2015 Business Awards Dinner on November...
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...
If VC Industry Needs to Find Women and Minorities to Fund, We Can Help
By Carol L. O’Riordan We frequently write in this space about the dearth of minorities and women in many sectors of the economy and about the need to raise those numbers both for reasons of equity and for good business reasons. That is why a current Washington Post article on diversity in the venture capital...