Level Playing Field The SBA evens the odds for smaller businesses seeking to win contracts.
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The SBA has handed sledge hammers to federal contractingofficials and told them to "break 'em up." Thatadmonition, provided by the SBA in the form of new rules, is meantto force contracting officers to think twice before bundling smallcontracts, which could go to small businesses, into jumbo contractsmeant for large primes. The new rules finalized by the SBAimplement recommendations published in October 2002 by the Officeof Federal Procurement Policy.
The new rules impose requirements on federal contractingofficials. If contracts are over a certain dollar amount (varyingby agency), the agency must coordinate its acquisition strategywith its Small Business Specialist no later than 30 days before theissuance of the solicitation. Part of that coordination requiresthe agency to identify alternatives to reduce or minimizebundling.
To address the problem from another angle, the SBA will allowcontracting officials to give "significant weight" to abig-company bidder that has met subcontracting goals on previouscontracts, so past performance could help when a big business bidsfor a new federal contract. But that extra credit won't bemandatory. In a related action, the SBA issued a proposed ruleproviding a list of factors to consider in evaluating a primecontractor's performance and good-faith efforts to achieverequirements in its subcontracting plan.
Class Dismissed?
Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vowed to redouble theirefforts to get enough senators to back the Class Action FairnessAct, which fell to a filibuster last October. The bill, which hadalready passed the House, would ensure that large and complex classactions, involving plaintiffs and defendants from around thecountry, could be heard in federal courts. Plaintiffs'attorneys sometimes shop for state court venues, which seem morelikely to award large damages, regardless of the merits of aparticular class action lawsuit.
Stephen Barlas is a freelance business reporter who coversthe Washington beat for 15 magazines.
