Preparation Sessions for Tribal Consultations Hosted by Outlook Law, NACA, and NCAI-ED

By: Christine V. Williams on 05/24/2018

The Native American Contractors Association and Outlook Law, LLC, in conjunction with NCAI-ED, are hosting preparation sessions for the tribal consultations.

The Federal Register for locations and dates for the tribal consultations is on the Outlook Law website and was attached to a previous email.  Here is that link.  https://outlooklaw.com/legal-list/tribal-consultations-oklahoma-city-oklahoma-albuquerque-new-mexico/  Recall, you can attend the prep session, the consultation, and you can submit comments as well.

NACA is arranging the meeting sites.  Subject to verification, here is where the preparation sessions will be held.

  1. Albuquerque June 6, 2018, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. DoubleTree,  201 Marquette Avenue NW, Albuquerque, NM.
  2. OKC: June 8, 2018, 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., Hampton Inn & Suites, OKC, OK, 300 East Sheridan

Potential Subjects

The announced purpose of the tribal consultations is to find out from businesses what regulations work and how to streamline or eliminate others so they work better for firms in the 8(a) and HUBZone programs.  Below are some items that, based on how the last ones went, you may want to consider commenting on the positive and negative.  Some specifics may be:

  • All Small Mentor Protégé Program and the 8(a) Mentor Protégé Program into one program  (it’s been my experience most folks are using the All Small approval process for all mentor protégé agreements in this regard).
  • Possibly eliminating SBA’s role in approving joint venture agreements for 8(a) competitive contracts.  (Mixed reviews)
  • Revising SBA’s process for approving management changes in entity-owned 8(a) firms.  (Comments made on eliminating the change of ownership when the ultimate parent is an entity owned [tribe, ANC, NHO] who remains in control).
  • Change of primary NAICS.  (Put in due process or a longer period for evaluation or a combination of both).
  • A way to trace the applications once they are in process.  (Many firms get frustrated by the lack of visibility and inability to plan for approval or disapproval or follow up from the agency and some lose contract opportunities due to lack of reliability).
  • Streamlining the application process for entity owned.
  • Allowing access for a point of contact to gather or input information with one email and not using multiple emails when inputting information for the application process.  (The email situation needs to be fixed because it is burdensome for entity owned. )
  • SBA floated the idea out that a preparatory tutorial be required for prospective 8(a) firms.  (I responded with it depends on the sophistication of the firm and whether it is voluntary.  Some would find this helpful while others would find it burdensome if they have firms that have participated in the 8(a) Program, are continuing to participate , and are familiar with the program).
  • Allowing mentors to have more than three proteges at one time.
  • HUBZone ideas:
    • Streamline it to match other eligibility.  HUBZone requires multiple eligibility points (entry, bid, award).  Others, such as size, the magic time is offer plus price.  Something similar would be helpful
    • Longer periods of employee eligibility for the 35% once an employee is confirmed HUBZone.
    • Not allowing the census data to wipe out HUBZones all at once but have a grandfather period.  (Recall you can hire from a HUBZone that is not your base HUBZone and still use that.  This is particularly helpful for reservations that are HUBZones and could compliment every firm if a longer period of qualification for employees was used).

If you would like to submit specific written comments, Outlook Law can and has been helping firms do that.  This can be a fairly easy and straightforward process.