The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act included several provisions related to small businesses, which include expanded opportunities as well as potentially harsher penalties for failure to follow regulations.
Although other agencies have created similar programs, the Small Business Administration (SBA) mentor-protégé program provides firms of all sizes with a number of benefits. The new legislation helps small businesses that are part of this program and subcontractors to large firms.
The current arrangement is, however, limited to businesses that are accepted into the 8(a) program — a subset of small business set-asides that are limited to firms which are owned by economically or socially disadvantaged individuals who go through an SBA certification process.
Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2013/march/Pages/NewDefenseLegislationaMixedBagforSmallBusiness.aspx