HUBZone Program Updates and Clarifications, and Clarifications to Other Small Business Programs

Issuing agencies

Abstract

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA or Agency) amends its regulations governing the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Program to clarify certain policies. In 2019, SBA published a comprehensive revision to the HUBZone Program regulations, which implemented changes intended to make the HUBZone Program more efficient and effective. This rule clarifies and improves policies surrounding some of those changes. In particular, the rule requires any certified HUBZone small business to be eligible as of the date of offer for any HUBZone contract. The rule also makes several changes to SBA's size and 8(a) Business Development (BD) regulations, as well as some technical changes to the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) programs. Of note, the rule deletes the program specific recertification requirements contained separately in SBA's size, 8(a) BD, HUBZone, WOSB, and VetCert and moves them to a new section that covers all size and status recertification requirements. This should ensure that the size and status requirements will be uniformly applied.