WASHINGTON – The U.S. Small Business Administration is seeking comments from the general public on key issues relating to its small business size standards, the rules used by the SBA and other federal agencies to determine whether a business is small.
Last March, SBA proposed to reduce the number of its size categories from 37 to 10 and define companies’ size just by their number of employees. Many members of the public responded with concern, so the SBA withdrew the proposal for further study.
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Now, before it considers a new approach to size standards, the SBA is seeking comments on several issues raised by the public in conjunction with the March proposal:
The SBA also will conduct a series of public meetings across the country on size standards to listen to ideas and concerns from the small business community. Information on these meetings will be announced in early 2005.
“In developing important policy changes regarding the small business community that SBA is here to serve, we are reaching out to engage our stakeholders in the process,” said Allegra F. McCullough, SBA associate deputy administrator for government contracting and business development. “We believe a number of areas concerning size standards need to be examined and input from the small business community will greatly assist us in formulating meaningful and relevant changes.”
The SBA will consider a new size standards proposal once a thorough review of comments received from the public is completed. The public will have an additional opportunity to comment on those specific changes once they are formally proposed.
