The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently issued a proposed rule that would expand mentor-protégé arrangements to all federal small businesses. In a mentor-protégé arrangement, a small business—i.e., the protégé—can joint venture with non-small businesses—i.e., large or mid-tier businesses acting as the mentor—and bid on small business set-aside contracts.
Currently, the SBA has a mentor-protégé program for minority, disadvantaged 8(a) small businesses. The proposed rule would expand the program to all small businesses (i.e., veteran/service disabled veteran owned, HUBZone, women-owned, as well as small businesses without any other designation). Comments on the rule are due April 6, 2015.
For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at christiansonj@agc.org or (703) 837-5325.