On June 1, 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that it intends to use the federal government’s purchasing power to grow federal contracting with small disadvantaged businesses by 50 percent, translating to an additional $100 billion over five years. This is one of many new steps intended to help narrow the racial wealth gap and reinvest in communities. In explaining this new policy goal, the Administration recognized that:
The SBA has released its Small Business Procurement Scorecards for 2011, and for the second year in a row the results paint a grim picture. In 2011 [pdf], small businesses were awarded an even smaller share of federal contract dollars than they received in 2010—$6.4 billion smaller. Prime contract awards to small businesses in 2011 totaled $91.5 billion, or 21.65 percent of federal agency contract expenditures. The previous year [pdf], small businesses were awarded 22.66 percent of all federal prime contracts, or $97.9 billion. It’s official: federal agencies have failed once again to meet the 23 percent government-wide goal for prime contract awards to small business concerns set by the Small Business Act.
Sweeping changes to Small Business Administration (“SBA”) regulations will go into effect on March 14, 2011. The new rules affect SBA’s 8(a) Business Development (“BD”) program, SBA’s mentor/protégé program, and its joint venture regulations. The final rule can be found here. As a whole, the amendments suggest that SBA intends to eliminate manipulation and abuse of the 8(a) BD and mentor/protégé programs by small and large businesses alike.
On February 2, 2011, the Small Business Administration published revised regulations regarding the effect of an SBA size determination. 76 Fed. Reg. 5680 (Feb. 2, 2011). The most significant of these new rules requires a contracting officer to terminate a contract that is awarded during the pendency of a size protest if the awardee is found to be not small.