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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 8, 2021 / Notices
have decreased by more than 40%.
Further, a recent survey of small businesses conducted by the National Defense Industrial Association found that nearly four out of five 77.3%
businesses reported that the COVID19
pandemic impacted them, with 85% of those saying the pandemic had negatively affected them. The Department seeks additional insight from the public in understanding the impact of the pandemic, as well as other negative influences, on small businesses in the defense industrial base.
This notice requests comments and information from the public specifically small business currently in, or interested in becoming part of, the defense industrial base to assist the DoD in updating its Small Business Strategy.

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Written Comments The DoD is particularly interested in comments and information directed to the policy objectives listed in E.O.
14017, E.O. 14036, and E.O. 13985 as they affect the U.S. and global supply chains. The Department is seeking input from small businesses as well as from those with relevant expertise on the following topics:
i. Government business practices that might inhibit or deter small businesses from producing and/or providing goods, services, and materials for DoD
requirements, to the detriment of the small business sector and in turn the defense industrial base;
ii. Regulations and business practices which may strain rather than strengthen the relationship between the Department and small businesses;
iii. The impact of the Departments major programs to support small business participation in the defense industrial base, specifically, the MentorProtege Program, Indian Incentive Program, Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, the Rapid Innovation Fund, Small Business Innovation Research SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer STTR;
iv. The use of past performance information during the periods of source selection, ongoing performance, and collection of information;
v. Increasing the Departments utilization of small business innovations;
vi. The Departments efforts to assist small businesses that seek to do business with the government, including experiences in working with the Departments contracting workforce;
vii. Contracting timelines and the impact of those timelines on small businesses;

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viii. The availability of skilled labor and other personnel to sustain a competitive small business ecosystem;
ix. Research, development, and demonstration priorities to support production and an advanced manufacturing base for the Departments requirements;
x. Policy recommendations or suggested executive, legislative, regulatory action to foster more resilient supply chains, greater competition in the defense industrial base, and/or more small business participation during the procurement process;
xi. Any additional comments from small businesses relevant to the assessment of supply chain resilience required by E.O. 14017, E.O. 14036, and E.O. 13985.
The DoD encourages respondents to structure their comments using the same text above as identifiers for the areas of inquiry to which they are responding.
This will assist the DoD in more easily reviewing and summarizing the comments received in response to these specific areas. For example, a commenter submitting comments responsive to i, Government business practices that might cause deterioration in capabilities, to the detriment of the small business sector and in turn the defense industrial base, would use that same text as a heading in the public comment followed by the commenters specific comments in this area. The Department encourages the use of an Executive Summary at the beginning of all comments and information to affect a more efficient Departmental review of the submitted documents.
Requirements for Written Comments The http www.regulations.gov website allows users to provide comments by filling in a Type Comment field, or by attaching a document using an Upload File field.
The DoD prefers that comments be provided in an attached document. The Department prefers submissions in Microsoft Word .doc files or Adobe Acrobat .pdf files. If the submission is provided in a format other than Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat, please indicate the name of the application in the Type Comment field. Please do not attach separate cover letters to electronic submissions; rather, include any information that might appear in a cover letter within the comments. Similarly, to the extent possible, please include any exhibits, annexes, or other attachments in the same file, so the submission consists of one file instead of multiple files.
Comments both public comments and non-confidential versions of comments
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containing business confidential information will be placed in the docket and open to public inspection.
Comments may be viewed on http
www.regulations.gov by entering docket number DoD2021OS0077 in the search field on the home page.
All filers should name their files using the name of the person or entity submitting the comments. Anonymous comments are also accepted.
Communications from agencies of the United States Government will not be made available for public inspection.
Anyone submitting business confidential information should clearly identify the business confidential portion at the time of submission, file a statement justifying nondisclosure and referring to the specific legal authority claimed, and provide a non-confidential version of the submission. The nonconfidential version of the submission will be placed in the public file on http www.regulations.gov. For comments submitted electronically containing business confidential information, the file name of the business confidential version should begin with the characters BC. Any page containing business confidential information must be clearly marked BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL on the top of that page. The non-confidential version must be clearly marked PUBLIC. The file name of the nonconfidential version should begin with the character P. The BC and P
should be followed by the name of the person or entity submitting the comments or rebuttal comments. If a public hearing is held in support of this assessment, a separate Federal Register notice will be published providing the date and information about the hearing.
The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Industrial Policy does not maintain a separate public inspection facility. Requesters should first view the Departments web page, which can be found at https https
open.defense.gov/ see Electronic FOIA heading. The records related to this assessment are made accessible in accordance with the regulations published in part 4 of title 15 of the Code of Federal Regulations 15 CFR 4.1
through 4.11.
Dated: September 1, 2021.
Aaron T. Siegel, Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
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