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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 112 / Monday, June 14, 2021 / Proposed Rules 2019007 on your attached document.
If your comment cannot be submitted using https www.regulations.gov, call or email the points of contact in the FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document for alternate instructions.
Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite FAR Case 2019007 in all correspondence related to this case.
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Please cite FAR Case 2019007.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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I. Background DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the FAR to implement revisions the Small Business Administration SBA has made in its regulations for the Historically Underutilized Business Zone HUBZone Program. Following a review of its HUBZone program regulations, SBA issued a rule on November 26, 2019, at 84 FR 65222, to update its regulations to reflect current policies, to eliminate ambiguities in its regulations, and to reduce burdens on small businesses and procuring agencies. This proposed FAR rule updates terminology and processes to correspond with SBAs changes, such as updating the definition of a HUBZone small business concern and the procedures for filing and processing HUBZone protests.

HUBZone specifies it is a firm the SBA
has certified as a HUBZone small business concern.
The representations for HUBZone small business concerns in FAR 52.212
3, Offeror Representations and CertificationsCommercial Items, and in FAR 52.2191, Small Business Program Representations, are revised to replace references to SBAs List of Qualified HUBZone Small Business Concerns with references to DSBS.
Throughout the FAR, instructions to contact SBA to ascertain a concerns status as a HUBZone small business concern are revised to direct the reader to DSBS.
B. Process for Filing a Protest HUBZone status protests procedures at FAR 19.306 are revised to specify who may protest the prospective contractors HUBZone status for HUBZone sole-source awards, that the Director of SBAs HUBZone Program will determine whether a protested concern has certified HUBZone status and, if SBA upholds the protest, that SBA will remove the concerns HUBZone status in DSBS. Updated references and procedures for filing protests against a HUBZone joint venture, based on SBAs regulations, are added.

II. Discussion and Analysis The proposed changes to the FAR are summarized in the following paragraphs.

C. Removal of Obsolete Text This rule proposes to delete obsolete text in FAR subpart 19.13, Historically Underutilized Business Zone HUBZone Program. In FAR 19.1302, Applicability, text is deleted regarding the application of the procedures in FAR subpart 19.13 to all Federal agencies that employ one or more contracting officers. This text is no longer necessary because agencies using the FAR employ one or more contracting officers. Paragraph e is deleted in FAR 19.1304, Exclusions.
This paragraph contains an outdated exclusion for requirements that do not exceed the micro-purchase threshold.
SBA removed this requirement from their regulations at 13 CFR 126.608;
therefore, this rule proposes to remove it from the FAR.

A. Definitions and Terminology The definition of HUBZone small business concern at FAR 2.101, Definitions, and FAR 52.2198, Utilization of Small Business Concerns, is revised to refer to the requirements described in 13 CFR 126.200 and SBAs designation of a HUBZone small business concern in the Dynamic Small Business Search DSBS. The term qualified HUBZone is removed throughout as the definition of
D. Removal of Notification Requirement This rule proposes to delete language at FAR 19.1303d, FAR 52.212
3c10i, paragraph g in the clause at FAR 52.2193, Notice of HUBZone SetAside or Sole-Source Award, and paragraph f in the clause at FAR
52.2194, Notice of Price Evaluation Preference for HUBZone Small Business Concerns. The current language requires a HUBZone offeror to be a HUBZone small business concern at the time of
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contract award and to notify the contracting officer if material changes occur before contract award that could affect its HUBZone eligibility. SBAs rule removes this requirement;
therefore, this FAR rule proposes to remove it from the FAR.
E. Removal of Restriction To Applying HUBZone Authorities to Contracts and Subcontracts at or Below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold This rule proposes to delete paragraph a9 of FAR 13.005, List of laws inapplicable to contracts and subcontracts at or below the simplified acquisition threshold SAT. This would remove the restriction against applying the HUBZone Act of 1997, 15 U.S.C.
657a, to contracts and subcontracts at or below the SAT. In FAR 19.1305, HUBZone set-aside procedures, the exception for acquisitions not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold is proposed for deletion. This would result in the procedures at FAR 19.2021 and FAR 19.402 being applied to HUBZone set-asides that do not exceed the simplified acquisition threshold.
Additionally, FAR 19.1306, HUBZone sole-source awards, was revised to remove paragraph a4, which restricted HUBZone sole-source awards to those valued above the SAT. This means that contracting officers would be able to make HUBZone sole-source awards with dollar values at or below the SAT.
III. Applicability to Contracts at or Below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold SAT and for Commercial Items, Including Commercially Available Off-The-Shelf COTS Items This rule amends the provision and clauses at FAR 52.2123, 52.2191, 52.2194, and 52.2198. However, this rule does not impose any new requirements on contracts at or below the SAT or for commercial items, including COTS items. These provisions and clauses continue to apply to acquisitions at or below the SAT and to acquisitions for commercial items, including COTS items.
This rule proposes to apply HUBZone sole-source authority of 15 U.S.C. 657a to acquisitions at or below the SAT.
Therefore, the clause at FAR 52.2193
will apply to acquisitions at or below the SAT.
A. Applicability to Contracts at or Below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold 41 U.S.C. 1905 governs the applicability of laws to acquisitions at or below the SAT. Section 1905
generally limits the applicability of new laws when agencies are making
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