SBA Hot Topic Tuesday — Nearly 90,000 Businesses Will Gain Small Business Status Under Adjusted Size Standard

August 27, 2019

By Caity Witucki
Contributing Editor, SBA Hot Topic Tuesday

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday — Nearly 90,000 Businesses Will Gain Small Business Status Under Adjusted Size Standard

On July 18, 2019, the U.S. Small Business Administration issued an interim final rule that adjusts monetary-based small business size standards by nearly 8.4% to reflect inflation and to allow more small businesses to become eligible for the SBA’s loan and contracting programs. These adjusted size standards became effective on August 19, 2019.

According to the Federal Register, “a number of businesses may have lost small business eligibility for Federal assistance under SBA’s monetary-based industry size standards simply because of inflation-led revenue growth that has occurred since the 2014 adjustment. This rule aims to reinstate those firms’ small business eligibility for Federal assistance.”

The SBA estimates that nearly 90,000 businesses will gain small business status under the adjusted size standard. This could lead to as much as $750 million in additional federal contracts awarded to small businesses and up to 120 additional small business loans totaling nearly $65 million.

The adjustment for inflation in this rule applies to all monetary-based industry size standards, including the revenue-based size standards for agricultural industries, which were previously set by a statute. The interim alternative size standards for the 7(a) and 504 loan programs will remain in effect until the SBA establishes a permanent alternative size standard for these programs.

Comments on this interim final rule can be submitted by September 16, 2019, at www.regulations.gov, identified with the following RIN number: RIN 3245-AH17. Interested parties may also mail comments to Khem R. Sharma, Chief, Office of Size Standards, 409 Third St. SW, Mail Code 6530, Washington, DC 20416.

Sources:

13 C.F.R. § 121 2019

Sba.gov. (2019). SBA Adjusts Size Standards to Expand Lending & Contracting Opportunities.