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Small businesses that create jobs and save taxpayer dollars by contracting with the federal government scored a victory today with final passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2016. The final version of the legislation, approved by the House of Representatives today, includes several provisions offered by the Small Business Committee that open doors for small businesses through the contracting and procurement opportunities.

“The National Defense Authorization Act for 2016 recognizes that small businesses play a major role in protecting the American people in a responsible, innovative way,” said Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH). “I’m especially proud of the Members of the Small Business Committee—Richard Hanna, Steve Knight, Carlos Curbelo, Cresent Hardy, Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, and Mike Bost—for seeing their excellent ideas through to the end of this process and giving small businesses a strong voice in this vital legislation.”

Chairman Chabot spoke in support of final passage of the 2016 NDAA during debate today. Please click here to view his remarks.

Notable small business provisions in NDAA:

Section 862 – Amendments to data quality improvement plan

• Based on H.R. 1410, introduced by Rep. Radewagen and H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act of 2015 (Rep. Chabot)

• Implements provisions to ensure that agencies are properly identifying, justifying and mitigating decisions to bundle or consolidate contracts, in order to defend opportunities for small businesses participation and competition.

Section 863 – Notice of contract consolidation for acquisition strategies

• Based on H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act of 2015 (Rep. Chabot)

• Requires that bundling and consolidation justifications be published with a solicitation, so that small businesses can challenge agencies that are unfairly taking away opportunities for small businesses.

Section 864 – Clarification of requirements related to small business contracts for services

• Based on H.R. 1583, the Small Business Contractor’s Clarification Act of 2015, and H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act of 2015 (Rep. Chabot)

• Prevents agencies and courts from applying the nonmanufacturer rule to small service contractors, so that small service contractors can continue providing incidental items as part of the procurement.

Section 865 – Certification requirements for Business Opportunity Specialists, commercial market representatives, and procurement center representatives

• Based on H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act of 2015 (Rep. Chabot)

• Protects small contractors by ensuring that the small business procurement advocates at the Small Business Administration (SBA) have the correct skillD and are receiving the necessary training.

Section 867 – Joint venturing and teaming

• Based on H.R. 1390, the Small Business Joint Venturing Act of 2015 (Rep. Knight) and H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act of 2015 (Rep. Chabot)

• Allows small business teams and joint ventures to rely upon the past performance and qualifications of the team members and joint venturers when pursuing large contracts.

• This expands the number of contracts where small businesses will be able to successfully compete for federal contracts.

Section 868 – Continued modification to and scorecard program for small business contracting goals

• Based on H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act of 2015 (Rep. Chabot)

• Requires the SBA to prioritize prime contracting, subcontracting, participation rates, and industrial diversification when grading agencies on how well they do contracting with small businesses.

• This addresses the problem of the SBA awarding “A” grades to federal agencies even though 100,000 small businesses no longer compete for federal contracts, the agencies are not meeting all the small business goals, and numerous industries have little or no small business participation.

Section 869 – Establishment of an Office of Hearings and Appeals in the Small Business Administration; petitions for reconsideration of size standards

• Based on H.R. 1429, the Stronger Voice for Small Business Act of 2015 (Reps. Bost, Connolly, Curbelo, and Hanna) and H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act of 2015 (Rep. Chabot)

• Creates a statutorily independent office to hear challenges to size standards.

• Empowers the office to review the process by which SBA decides the industry-specific small business size standards, since currently small businesses must go to federal court with these challenges.

Section 871 – Including subcontracting goals in agency responsibilities

• Based on H.R. 1386, the SESO Act (Reps. Curbelo, Chabot and Gibson), and H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act of 2015 (Rep. Chabot)

• As the use of small subcontractors continues to drop, this provision holds agency executives accountable for meeting their small business subcontracting goals.

Section 873 – Surety bond requirements and amount of guarantee

• Based on: H.R.838, Security in Bonding Act of 2015 (Reps. Hanna, Chabot, Knight, and Meng)

• Protects taxpayers and subcontractors by ensuring that private sureties have the assets necessary to fulfill bonds.

• Makes it easier for small businesses to obtain compliant bonds.


For a complete list of the ways the 2016 NDAA can benefit small businesses, please click here.

Chairman Steve Chabot's speech on the importance of this year's NDAA:

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