Alert
Alert
01.14.21
On January 13, 2021, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued an interim final rule (effective immediately) to allow certain 8(a) Business Development (BD) program (the “program”) participants to extend their program term by a period of one year. The interim rule implements a provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which permits businesses that were in the program on or before September 9, 2020, to extend their participation in the program for a period of one year.
The SBA notes in the interim final rule that Congress did not provide clarifying language as to what ‘‘before’’ September 9, 2020 was intended to encompass. The SBA interpreted the provision as a type of pandemic relief for 8(a) BD participants. Accordingly, the SBA determined that the interim final rule applies to any firm participating in the program as of the date the national disaster was declared due to the pandemic on March 13, 2020. Unless a firm declines to participate, the one-year extension automatically applies to participants that were in the program between March 13, 2020 and January 13, 2021.
Firms that were participating in the program as of March 13, 2020, but have since graduated or otherwise left the program before January 13, 2021, must notify the SBA of their intent to be readmitted for the one-year extension. They must notify the SBA of their intent by March 15, 2021 and certify that they meet the eligibility requirements of the program—the extension period will begin from the date the firm completed the program.
The one-year extension does not apply to 8(a) participants that graduated from or otherwise left the program prior to March 13, 2020, or to participants that were admitted to the program after September 9, 2020. Further, the extension does not apply to program participants that were terminated, early graduated, or those that voluntarily withdrew from the program between March 13, 2020 and September 9, 2020.