The SBA has issued its draft rules on how it will go about certifying Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSBs) and Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs). Below, we highlight some of the main components of these rules. The changes stem from Congress’s requirement in the 2021 NDAA to to eliminate SDVOSB self-certification and adopt a government-wide SDVOSB certification requirement, while transferring control of the certification process from the VA to the SBA. For the most part, SBA has taken a simple approach, combining its existing rules on eligibility with much of the application procedures from VA. But the details do matter, and below we’ll walk through some of them.
SBA issued its proposed rule on July 6, with comments due August 5, 2022. So, if you have questions about the process, be sure to send your comments to SBA…
Here are some of the key aspects of the proposed rule:
- SBA is establishing a Veterans Certification Program (Vets Program) to handle the required certifications for SDVOSBs and VOSBs. SBA will house the Veterans Certification Program rules in a new 13 CFR part 128.
- SBA will grant reciprocity to participants in the 8(a) Program and Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) program that are owned and controlled by veterans or service-disabled veterans.
- Firms certified with the VA CVE program will continue to be certified for the remainder of the 3-year eligibility term. SBA generally adopted the procedures that the VA had used for application guidelines, rules on continuing eligibility, program examinations, and program exit procedures.
- Generally, the eligibility rules would be similar to the SDVOSB ownership and control rules that currently exist in SBA’s rules.
- “SBA has not established the policies and procedures for application processing at this time.” Those details will be released in a future rule…
