A major dispute is brewing in the small business community. Just four months after the Supreme Court’s June 16, 2016 unanimous decision on the Kingdomware case, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is taking a stand on the “rule of two” that is stressing out industry and agencies alike.
As a quick reminder, the nation’s highest court ruled in the Kingdomware case that the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) must continue to apply the “rule of two” for veteran-owned small businesses even if the agency surpassed its annual prime contracting goal. The “rule of two” states if an agency can find two or more qualified small businesses during market research of a contract under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) — between $3,500 and $150,000 — it must set aside the solicitation.
Now the SBA is expanding that Supreme Court ruling to apply to all task and delivery orders under SAT if the request for proposals comes under the General Services Administration’s Schedules.
Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2016/12/sba-gsa-ofpp-not-seeing-eye-eye-rule-two-application/
Here is a copy of the SBA’s memo telling its PCRs that the should apply small business preferences to all task orders and all delivery orders because they are considered contracts pursuant to the Kingdomware decision: http://www.wifcon.com/dgc_memo.pdf
