U.S. Small Business Administration Releases Regulatory Agenda

Last week, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) also released its statement of regulatory priorities for the next year. Of those priorities, federal construction contractors should be most interested in SBA’s desire to release regulations that would extend the availability of mentor-protégé programs to all small business concerns. SBA currently has a mentor-protégé program for the 8(a) Business Development Program that is intended to enhance the capabilities of the protégé and to improve its ability to successfully compete for Federal contracts. The various types of assistance that a mentor will be expected to provide to a protégé include technical and/or management assistance; financial assistance in the form of equity investment and/or loans; subcontracts and/or assistance in performing prime contracts with the government in the form of joint-venture arrangements. For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at (703) 837-5325 or christiansonj@agc.org.