More companies will be eligible to compete for federal contracts reserved for small businesses, due to the recent implementation of a 2018 law.
On Monday, the Small Businesses Administration’s final rule to implement the 2018 Small Business Runway Extension Act took effect, increasing the period of measuring small businesses’ annual revenue from three to five years in the contract evaluation process. This is “going to increase the pool of eligible participants and make a lot more companies eligible to participate for small business set asides,” said Daniel Snyder, director of contract analysis at Bloomberg Government.
The act was signed into law on Dec. 17, 2018. Snyder said there was a delay in implementation because there were “a small fraction” of companies put at a disadvantage by the change, so the agency wanted to figure out how to best mitigate any negative impact. The compromise was to “give small businesses the option to choose either three or five years and then there will be a phase-in period, so companies will be allowed to choose...whichever one puts them at a greater advantage until the phase-out period concludes.” The transition period ends on Jan. 6, 2022.
The rule change will benefit most small firms, procurement experts said. “Small businesses that are on the verge of exceeding their relevant industry small business size standard can extend their small business lifetimes and their access to small business set-aside procurements,” according to the law firm Arnold & Porter. “This extension will also give small businesses additional time to build ..
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