VetBizCentral.com: FYI 25 May 2009

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5th Annual Veteran Entrepreneurial Training Conference
10 November 2010- Troy, MI (MORE INFO) or REGISTER HERE

ED's WORD UPDATE: AUGUST 2010
FYI UPDATE: AUGUST 2010

THINGS TO DO

Openings Available For Entrepreneurial Boot Camp For Disabled Vets
MORE

Michigan's Own
Military and Space Museum
Frankenmuth, MI 48734

Easy-access video guides that provide compact information, training and more.

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Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) Whitman School of Management

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SBA Launches Online Course

"How to Win Federal Contracts"
Word Doc HERE
SBA Page HERE

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Dept. of VA American Reinvestment & Recovery Act Update

(PowerPoint)

House Bill calls for placing SDVOB program under 8a

Senators prepare for battle over Alaska native contracting

Lending up; much left to accomplish, Says SBA chief

Week of 5 June 2009

House Bill calls for placing
SDVOB program under 8a

H.R. 456, a bill to place the SDVOB contracting preference program under the SBA’s 8a program has been introduced in the House and is before the Small Business Committee. Joe Wynn, Treasurer of the Veteran Entrepreneurship Task Force (VET-Force) had the following thoughts on the issue:

In 2007, when this type of legislation was proposed, an informal survey was conducted of the veteran business owners who attended the National Veterans Small Business Expo in Las Vegas and others from around the country. The overwhelming majority indicated that they were adamantly opposed to being placed under the SBA 8a program. I testified to this in at hearing before the House Veterans Affairs Committee. The reasoning was that Congress stated in PL 106-50 that Veterans were granted the small business preference for having served in defense of this country and not for being socially and economically disadvantaged. And this preference is especially deserving of those veterans who were injured or disabled.

Somehow, the view of many in the Federal marketplace, is that all small business preference programs are for socially and/or economically disadvantaged businesses. That's why so often we hear contracting officials questioning whether their are enough capable and qualified SDVOBs available.

While there are some businesses in need of development, there are still many more that is capable and qualified.

To lump SDVOBs into the SBA 8a program is not necessary. If Congress wants to increase contracting opportunities for SDVOBs, there a couple of things that have been proposed by members of VET-Force and other veteran organizations for the past few years:

I. "May" versus "Shall" One of the most significant actions that this Congress can do to advance the SDVOSB Federal Procurement Program is to change, clarify or remove the word "May" from the legislation governing the program. There has been enormous confusion created because of the use of the word "May" throughout the legislation (PL 108-183) and the implementing regulation.

In reviewing the discussion points included as part of the implementing regulation published in the Federal Register on March 23, 2005, by DOD, GSA, and NASA, one can clearly discern that the word "May" is being used in a positive way to allow contracting officers the latitude to award contracts under either the SDVOSB program, the Hubzone Program, or the 8a Program.

But this use of the word "May" has to be clarified so that contracting officers will stop using it as an excuse to not award contracts to SDVOSBs. Many continue to say that the term "May" causes the SDVOSB program to be placed in an order BELOW the 8a and Hubzone programs. And recent decisions by GAO supported this view.

II. Authorization to Make Direct Awards to SDVOSBs

Contracting officers don't have the authority to issue direct awards to a SDVOSB of their choosing, under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold as is allowed under the Small Business Act for the 8a program. At present, contracting officers must always refer to the Rule of Two as introduced under PL 108-183 and contained in Part 19 FAR, and the Code of Federal Regulations.

(CFR) 13 CFR, Part 125. The Rule of Two states if a contracting officer knows of two or more SDVOBs that can do the work, then the requirement must be competed. But the law also states that if the contracting officer only knows of one SDVOB that can meet the requirement, a sole source award CAN BE Made. Yet without the authority to make direct awards to SDVOSBs, contracting officers are reluctant to even use the Sole Source authority permitted under the law.

(3) Oppose any legislation that puts SDVOBs in the 8a program. Even though Contracting Officers find it easier to use the 8a authority, SDVOBs should be given equal authority and retain their own identify.

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Senators prepare for battle over Alaska native contracting,
By Dan Friedman Congress Daily

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Contracting Oversight Subcommittee Chairwoman Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is picking a fight with Alaska over contracting breaks state native corporations enjoy, setting up a test for a state delegation eager to show it can keep benefits long protected by the power of former GOP Sen. Ted Stevens.

McCaskill sent letters this month to 20 Alaska Native Corporations, seeking information about their compensation, subsidiaries, shareholder benefits, federal contract revenues and other business practices and scheduled a July 16 subcommittee hearing.

Under a legal regime built up by Stevens-backed legislation since 1971, the Alaska Native Corporations, along with native Hawaiian organizations and Indian tribes, are eligible for federal contracts under the Small Business Administration's 8(a) development program.

Unlike most other small businesses in the program, the ANCs can win no-bid contracts and subcontracts from government agencies and face no limit on total contract value. With those and other benefits, the ANCs have become major federal contractors and cash cows for Alaska, earning $5 billion in federal contracts in fiscal 2008, according to Government Executive magazine.

The ANCs' benefits have been targeted for years by trade groups representing other small business contractors, good-government groups and lawmakers, including former House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Waxman held a hearing on the ANCs in 2006 and later put provisions into defense authorization bills that would have forced agencies to limit sole-source awards to ANCs. But Stevens and Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, got the provision removed.

McCaskill said she is "skeptical of the ability to give anybody a noncompetitive bid with no limit. That just kind of offends me at its base." But she said legal changes might not be "doable now. These guys, they're huge corporations; they have huge lobbying efforts under way. I am already feeling the hot breath of the lobbying effort on my neck."

Alaska Sens. Mark Begich, a Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, want to show they can deliver for their constituents on the ANC issue and other state matters. "I'm raring to go on it," said Begich, arguing the corporations cut poverty among Alaska natives.

Begich and Murkowski sent McCaskill a letter asking her to give the ANCs more time to respond and each argued new program rules SBA is developing should be allowed to take effect. Begich said he is eager to "talk to people like Senator McCaskill, who does not have the history on this."

The ANC matter is just one front where Alaska is on the defensive. Murkowski recently announced she has won a commitment from the Obama administration to work with her on its proposed cut of $20 million in the Denali Commission, which supports construction of health facilities in Alaska.

Murkowski said past efforts to restore funds have been successful. But this is the first year Stevens will not be on the Appropriations Committee to aid in that effort.

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Lending up; much left to accomplish,
Says SBA chief
by Matt Burns

The head of the Small Business Administration is on a multi-city tour to outline new loan programs and tout the agency’s successes in the first few months of the Obama administration, but her message is anything but "mission accomplished."

Karen Mills, a Maine venture capitalist and former board member of Marysville-based Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (NYSE:SMG), made her way into Columbus to visit transportation and warehousing firm Brown Logistics Solutions Inc. It’s a company Mills says is one of many that has taken advantage of a range of new recovery programs implemented in the wake of the $787 billion federal stimulus bill.

Brown, a sixth-generation family-owned business with 47 employees and about $6 million in revenue last year, worked with Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) to secure a $2 million loan to buy its headquarters off Hamilton Road in east Columbus. President Rob Hunt said the company sidestepped paying about $65,000 in fees after the SBA instituted a temporary waiver for businesses that borrow through its flagship 7(a) program. Owning the company’s headquarters outright brings long-term security, he said, which would have been hard to find without federal backing.

"Banks aren’t doing conventional loans right now," Hunt said. "We simply wouldn’t have been able to do this."

Initiatives such as the fee waiver, Mills said, are making a difference in a short amount of time: More lenders are getting into the fray while SBA-backed loan volume is up more than 25 percent since the passage of the stimulus bill. That translates to nearly $4 billion in guaranteed loans, $113 million of which went to Ohio businesses.

But it’s making small businesses aware of the programs on hand that’s the key challenge going forward, she said.

"All of these things take time," Mills said. "Small businesses are busy running their business."

In addition to the waiver and an increased guarantee of 90 percent on 7(a) loans, the SBA also has offered a surety bond guarantee of $5 million, up from $2 million, for businesses competing for federal contracts. On June 15, it’s rolling out a program dubbed America’s Recovery Capital, which offers loans of up to $35,000 for businesses struggling to make debt payments. Those loans are fully guaranteed and have a deferred payment schedule. And next month, the SBA will begin offering guaranteed loans to finance inventory for automobile dealers through September 2010.

Mills said she’s confident the agency has the right tools in place for small businesses – and the outlook on the economy hasn’t hurt either.

"The sense from small businesses and others is that the free fall has stopped," she said. "But we still have a ways to go."