2014 FAR Agenda Includes Rule to Encourage Small Business Set Asides

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Proposed changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulations for 2014 include a rule that would encourage agencies to set aside contracts for small businesses.

The interim rule would codify part of the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act that addressed set-asides of task- and delivery-orders as well as partial set-asides under multiple-award contracts, the 2014 FAR regulatory agenda says.  The interim rule would only strengthen what’s already happening in the government, said federal procurement expert Larry Allen. Agencies already regularly set aside contracts for small businesses, he added.
“It’s a further step to enshrine a practice that already happens,” Allen said. This year’s agenda will also include a proposed rule to clarify regulatory coverage on organizational conflicts of interest–when a contractor provides two types of services to the government that have conflicting interests.
Another proposed rule would implement a uniform Procurement Instrument Identification numbering system. That system will require the use of Activity Address Codes to identify contracting offices and other offices in an effort to standardize procurement transactions across agencies.
But the gears of regulatory reform might move slowly this year, Allen said, because there will be no full time head of the office of procurement policy when Joe Jordan leaves at the end of January.
“History has shown, with the absence of someone there full time, the wheels will turn more slowly,” he said.
For more: – go to a Federal Register notice for the FAR regulatory agenda