Over the past year, since the General Accountability Office (GAO) decisions concerning the HUBZone vs. service-disabled, veteran-owned small business and 8(a) programs, confusion has reigned supreme as to which program contracting officers in the federal government should support.  In each decision, the GAO opined that the HUBZone program took priority over other small business programs. In effect, if contracting officers found two or more HUBZone firms with capability and capacity to perform, they were required to set-aside contracts for HUBZone competition before considering SDVOB or 8(a) set-asides.

The Department of Justice issued an opinion stating that the GAO decisions were not binding on contracting officers. Although this opinion has established an administration position on the issue, the fact still remains that contracting officers must follow the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) which allow potential offerors to protest contracting officer decisions when they believe contracting officers haven’t followed the regulations. Contracting officers generally will not circumvent the FAR and risk a protest.  But, the only way to resolve the “parity” issue is for Congress to take action.

The House of Representatives Fails for SDVOBs

In October, the Senate included an amendment in the Department of Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2010 which sought to place the three small business contracting programs (HUBZone, 8(a) and SDVOB) on an equal playing field when competing for federal contracts.  All of us in the veteran small business community were extremely disappointed when the House of Representatives stripped this amendment from the authorization act.

It’s Time to take action!

The only way to resolve this issue once and for all is through the legislative process.  Congress needs to understand the importance of this issue to all veteran-owned small businesses. We need your support through discussions and communications with your member of Congress that this action by the House is severely impacting federal agencies’ ability to support the SDVOB program. Stand up and make phone calls, write letters and send emails. Let Congress know that this is unacceptable and this will certainly impact the way the veteran voting constituency will cast its future ballots.

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