13 CFR 121 - SMALL BUSINESS SIZE REGULATIONS

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is correcting an interim final rule that appeared in the Federal Register on August 20, 2012 (75 FR 49991). The document amended SBA's Small Business Size Regulations by incorporating the Office of Management and Budget's 2012 modifications of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) into its table of small business size standards. In addition, the document revised the definitions of some NAICS 2007 industries, deleted others, and aggregated a number of closely related industries and activities into other new or revised industries. SBA will adopt the changes effective with the beginning of the Federal Government's first new fiscal year (October 1, 2012) following the revisions.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is amending its Small Business Size Regulations to incorporate the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) 2012 modifications of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), identified as NAICS 2012, into its table of small business size standards. NAICS 2012 has created 76 new industry codes and reused 13 NAICS 2007 industry codes with additional or modified content. Those 89 new and modified industry codes in NAICS 2012 impact 199 industry codes in NAICS 2007. The large majority of the changes involve renumbering and/or redefining NAICS 2007 codes in NAICS 2012, without warranting changes to their size standards. Therefore, for those industries SBA has transferred the size standards of the NAICS 2007 industry to the NAICS 2012 industry. SBA's adoption of NAICS 2012 will result in changes to small business size standards for 41 NAICS 2007 industries and one exception. This will also result in changes to NAICS industry titles for one Subsector and eight industries.

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is increasing the small business size standards for 22 industries in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 48-49, Transportation and Warehousing, and retaining the current standards for the remaining 37 industries in that Sector. As part of its ongoing comprehensive review of all size standards, SBA has evaluated all receipts based standards for industries in NAICS Sector 48-49 to determine whether they should be retained or revised. SBA did not review the employee based standards for industries in NAICS Sector 48-49, but will do so at a later date with other employee based size standards.

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is increasing 37 small business size standards for 34 industries and three sub-industries (“exceptions” in SBA's table of small business size standards) in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 54, Professional, Technical, and Scientific Services. SBA is also increasing the one size standard in NAICS Sector 81, Other Services, which it did not review in 2010. These size standards are all receipts based. SBA is retaining the current standards for the remaining industries in NAICS Sector 54. This rule also removes “Map Drafting” as the “exception” to NAICS 541340, Drafting Services. As part of its ongoing comprehensive review of all size standards, SBA has evaluated every receipts based size standard in NAICS Sector 54 as well as the one previously unreviewed size standard in NAICS Sector 81 to determine whether the existing standards should be retained or revised.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is correcting an interim final rule that appeared in the Federal Register on August 20, 2012 (75 FR 49991). The document amended SBA's Small Business Size Regulations by incorporating the Office of Management and Budget's 2012 modifications of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) into its table of small business size standards. In addition, the document revised the definitions of some NAICS 2007 industries, deleted others, and aggregated a number of closely related industries and activities into other new or revised industries. SBA will adopt the changes effective with the beginning of the Federal Government's first new fiscal year (October 1, 2012) following the revisions.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is amending its Small Business Size Regulations to incorporate the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) 2012 modifications of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), identified as NAICS 2012, into its table of small business size standards. NAICS 2012 has created 76 new industry codes and reused 13 NAICS 2007 industry codes with additional or modified content. Those 89 new and modified industry codes in NAICS 2012 impact 199 industry codes in NAICS 2007. The large majority of the changes involve renumbering and/or redefining NAICS 2007 codes in NAICS 2012, without warranting changes to their size standards. Therefore, for those industries SBA has transferred the size standards of the NAICS 2007 industry to the NAICS 2012 industry. SBA's adoption of NAICS 2012 will result in changes to small business size standards for 41 NAICS 2007 industries and one exception. This will also result in changes to NAICS industry titles for one Subsector and eight industries.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) proposes to revise the small business size standards for nine industries in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 22, Utilities. Six of those industries deal with electric power generation, distribution and transmission (NAICS 221111, NAICS 221112, NAICS 221113, NAICS 221119, NAICS 221121, and NAICS 221122) and have a common size standard based on electric output. For those six industries, SBA proposes to replace the current size standard of 4 million megawatt hours in electric output with an employee based size standard of 500 employees. SBA also proposes to increase the small business size standards for three industries in NAICS Sector 22 that have receipt based size standards, namely—NAICS 221310, Water Supply and Irrigation Systems, from $7 million to $25.5 million; NAICS 221320, Sewage Treatment Facilities, from $7 million to $19 million; and NAICS 221330, Steam and Air-conditioning Supply, from $12.5 million to $14 million. As part of its ongoing initiative to review all size standards, SBA evaluated all industries in NAICS Sector 22 that have either electric output based or receipts based size standards to determine whether the existing size standards should be retained or revised. This rule is one of a series of proposed rules that will examine industries grouped by NAICS sector. SBA has issued a White Paper entitled “Size Standards Methodology” and published in the October 21, 2009 issue of the Federal Register a notice that “Size Standards Methodology” is available on its Web site at www.sba.gov/size for public review and comments. The “Size Standards Methodology” White Paper explains how SBA establishes, reviews and modifies its small business size standards. In this proposed rule, SBA has applied its methodology that pertains to establishing, reviewing, and modifying a size standard based on average annual receipts and electric output.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announces that it is holding a public Webinar and Roundtable Meetings regarding its proposal to amend its regulations governing size and eligibility for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs. The proposed rule would implement provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. The proposed rule addresses ownership, control and affiliation for participants in the SBIR and STTR Programs. This includes participants that are majority owned by multiple venture capital operating companies, private equity firms or hedge funds. The Webinar and Roundtable Meetings will provide a basic overview of and respond to questions regarding the proposed rule. The Webinar and Roundtable Meetings will be summarized and become part of the administrative record.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) proposes to amend its regulations governing small business contracting procedures. This proposed rule would amend SBA's regulations to implement the following sections of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010: section 1311 (definition of multiple award contract); section 1313 (consolidation of contracts definitions, policy, limitations on use, determination on necessary and justified); and section 1331 (reservation and set-aside of multiple award contracts and orders against multiple award contracts for small businesses). In addition, the proposed rule revises 13 CFR part 125 by reorganizing the part for clarity and creating a definition section.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) proposes to amend its regulations governing size and eligibility for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs. This proposed rule would implement provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. The proposed rule addresses ownership, control and affiliation for participants in the SBIR and STTR Programs. This includes participants that are majority owned by multiple venture capital operating companies, private equity firms or hedge funds.

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is increasing 37 small business size standards for 34 industries and three sub-industries (“exceptions” in SBA's table of small business size standards) in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 54, Professional, Technical, and Scientific Services. SBA is also increasing the one size standard in NAICS Sector 81, Other Services, which it did not review in 2010. These size standards are all receipts based. SBA is retaining the current standards for the remaining industries in NAICS Sector 54. This rule also removes “Map Drafting” as the “exception” to NAICS 541340, Drafting Services. As part of its ongoing comprehensive review of all size standards, SBA has evaluated every receipts based size standard in NAICS Sector 54 as well as the one previously unreviewed size standard in NAICS Sector 81 to determine whether the existing standards should be retained or revised.