Legal Updates

The Office of Advocacy, an independent office within the SBA, is holding an outreach meeting in Anchorage, Alaska on September 14 from 1-4 at the Loussac Library.  This will be held after tribal consultations, which the Office of Advocacy, an independent voice for the impact of regulations on small businesses, will attend. The digital outreach is an in-person listening session to better...

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA or Agency) announces that it is holding tribal consultation meetings in Anchorage, Alaska, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C., as well as a Listening Session in Honolulu, Hawaii, concerning forthcoming proposed revisions to the 8(a) Business Development (BD) program regulations. Additionally, SBA requests comments...

As has been discussed, the SBA is getting ready to release new regulations for procurement programs, including 8(a).  In conjunction with the yet to be released regulations, the SBA is scheduling tribal consultations in Anchorage, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.  The Anchorage tribal consultation is scheduled for September 14 and the New Mexico and Oklahoma consultations for the yet to be released...

In a policy with an effective date of June 30, 2022, SBA has extended the Bona Fide Office Moratorium for 8(a) firms until September 30, 2023.  The first moratorium was set to expire on September 30, 2022.  The moratorium or pause on regulations is necessary because the regulations were changed so that sole source awards, a distinct feature of the 8(a) Program, would join competitively bid...

During the panel with Outlook Law and the Small Business Administration (SBA), during the Alaska Native Village Corporation Association's Annual Conference, the Chief Counsel for the Office of Advocacy announced it will begin to attend tribal consultations to more fully understand the impact of regulations from all agencies, including SBA, have on  federally and state recognized tribes as well...

This week, SBA Headquarters and Outlook Law, LLC, spoke on a panel regarding changes benefiting small business.  Although it is widely known, the government increased small business goaling, one important fact that is lesser known but of great importance is the relationship of category management to small businesses.  Category Management has long been seen as one of the single greatest threats...

Outlook Law, LLC, is pleased to announce that its managing partner, Christine V Williams, will speak on a panel with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), at the Alaska Native Village Corporation Association (ANVCA) conference on May 10, 2022 at noon, which is open to the public.  The panelist from SBA are headquartered in DC and include the following: Major L. Clark is the Office...

The Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee (ISDC) released its report on suspension and debarment relating to government contracting.  According to the report, which breaks the numbers down by agency, suspension and debarment actions increased but not necessarily in a linear fashion.  For instance, in 2020, the debarments increased slightly from the prior year, whereas the proposed...

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), who has just seen a record year of False Claims Act (FCA) enforcement, TriMark USA, LLC of Mansfield, Massachusetts, has agreed to pay $48.5 million to resolve allegations that its subsidiaries, TriMark Gill Marketing and TriMark Gill Group, Inc. (collectively, TriMark), improperly manipulated federal small business set-aside contracts around the...

The Inspector General (IG) of the Small Business Administration (SBA) examined the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and how SBA was administering it.  This examination included SBA creating uncertainty in not meeting statutory deadlines, potential fraud, and the procedures used in general regarding PPP loans to small businesses. The IG found the following: That for loans totaling $66.4...