The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council has proposed a rule amending the FAR to implement the Small Business Administration (SBA)’s previous regulatory changes to the SBA mentor-protégé program. In previous years, the SBA implemented sections of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that added Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to the list of territories from which small businesses are eligible for preferential treatment under the SBA mentor-protégé program.

The SBA’s regulatory changes implemented incentives for mentor-protégé pairs when the protégé’s principal office is in Puerto Rico or another covered territory. A mentor that subcontracts to such a protégé can receive positive consideration for the mentor’s past performance evaluation and can apply costs incurred for training provided to its protégé to its subcontracting plan goals. The proposed rule would modify the following FAR clauses to implement these incentives:

• FAR 19.702
   
• FAR 42.1501
   
• FAR 52.219-9 Small Business Subcontracting Plan

The proposed rule would also clarify that a contractor can rely on a subcontractor’s representations of its size and socioeconomic status unless the contractor has reason to question those representations. Subcontracting plans are not required from entities that are treated as small business concerns by the statute, such as ANCs. These changes to the FAR would implement SBA regulations at 13 C.F.R. § 121.404(e) and § 125.3(b)(2) and would modify the following FAR Clauses:

• FAR 19.702
   
• FAR 19.703
   
• FAR 52.219-8, Utilization of Small Business Concerns
   
• FAR 52.219-9 Small Business Subcontracting Plan