On December 11, 2023, the Small Business Administration invited feedback on a revised methodology for setting and reviewing its small-business size standards. The agency said the framework would be used in its forthcoming third five-year review; comments on the methodology were due February 9, 2024. [story-s1]
The proposed changes included replacing the federal-contracting factor with a disparity-ratio approach and using federal procurement and registration-system data to calculate industry-factor percentiles for subindustry exceptions, rather than relying on Economic Census data for those calculations. SBA also proposed updating minimum and maximum size-standard levels and revising industry-factor percentiles using the 2017 Economic Census and other industry data. [story-s1]
For firms that compete for federal contracts or depend on SBA size-based programs, the methodology matters because it informs how the agency defines the small-business category across industries. The release describes proposed analytical rules—not final size-standard changes—and invited written comments through the federal rulemaking portal, by mail, or by email, as well as oral comments at virtual forums scheduled for January 23 and 25, 2024. The agency identified the proposal as docket SBA-2023-0015 and noted that the methodological revision followed its second comprehensive review, including consideration of public comments on the 2019 paper. Businesses reviewing the proposal therefore had a defined comment window before the framework was applied in the next review cycle. [story-s1]
Source documents
- SBA issues 2023 White Paper on its Size Standards Methodologyhttps://www.sba.gov/article/2023/12/11/sba-issues-2023-white-paper-its-size-standards-methodology