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Section 825 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (NDAA), Public Law 113-291, 128 Stat. 3292, Dec. 19, 2014, included language requiring that women-owned small business concerns and economically disadvantaged women-owned small business concerns are certified by a Federal agency, a State government, the Administrator, or national certifying entity approved by the Administrator as a small business concern owned and controlled by women. This rule will propose the standards and procedures for participation in this certification program. This rule will also propose to revise the procedures for continuing eligibility, program examinations, protest and appeals. The proposed revisions will reflect public comments that SBA received in response to the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that the agency issued in December 2016 to solicit feedback on implementation of the program. Finally, SBA is planning to continue to utilize new technology to improve its efficiency and decrease small business burdens, and therefore, the new certification procedures will be based on an electronic application and certification process.

Statement of Need:

Proposed rule to implement statutory requirement to certify Women Owned Small Business Concerns (WOSBs) for purposes of receiving set aside and sole source contracts under the WOSB program.

Summary of the Legal Basis:

These proposed regulations implement section 825 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, Public Law 113-291, 128 Stat. 3292 (December 19, 2014) (2015 NDAA).

Alternatives:

The proposed regulations are required to implement specific statutory provisions which require promulgation of implementing regulations.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

The benefit of the proposed regulation is a significant improvement in the confidence of contracting officers to make federal contract awards to eligible firms.  Under the existing system, the burden of eligibility compliance was placed upon the awarding contracting officer.  Under this new proposed rule, the burden is placed upon SBA.  This will encourage more contracting officers to set- aside opportunities for WOSB Program participants as the validation process will be controlled by SBA in both the System for Award Management and the Dynamic Small Business Search. 

Risks:

There is always a slight risk that an agency will award a set aside contract to a firm that is ineligible.  Certification of firms prior to award will lessen this risk.