CAAC Letter 2019-01: Limitations on Subcontracting - Redux

This is a piss poor way to run a railroad.  The CAAC should simply change the FAR itself rather than expecting every agency to do its own class deviation.

ji20874 said:

This is a piss poor way to run a railroad.  The CAAC should simply change the FAR itself rather than expecting every agency to do its own class deviation.

The plan is to change the FAR. If you mean they should issue an interim rule instead of the letter, I totally agree.

The Small Business Act was amended in 2013 to change the limitation on subcontracting.  The SBA changed its rules in 2016 to reflect the 2013 changes.  In December 2018, the FAR Councils issued a proposed rule to adopt the 2016 SBA implementation of the 2013 statute.  At the same time, DoD issued a class deviation to the FAR adopting the 2016 SBA rules.  The FAR Councils could have issued an interim rule in Dec. 2018 instead of the proposed rule.  This is bureaucracy run amok.  Now lets see how long it takes to have all the rule changes necessary to implement the 5 year period for computing size under revenue based size standards.

It is definitely a sad state of affairs. I am not sure what is causing this level of significant delay after the law has been signed back in 2013! I can only imagine the comments on the proposed rule must have been overwhelmingly strong and would encourage the FAR council to move forward. I found this FAR timeline image and it hurts me to say that it doesn't look like the change will be implemented until 2020 - are you guys reading this differently? The change from interim rule to proposed rule (again!) put us back by 18-20 months!!

Image for the FAR Timeline

I hope that DoD delays it as long as possible.  The new limitations on subcontracting legalize and encourage brokering and storefront prime contractor arrangements on set-aside (exclusive, class preference) contracts.

joel hoffman said:

I hope that DoD delays it as long as possible.

DoD issued a class deviation adopting the SBA rules on Dec. 3, 2018. 

As for brokering, I don't know the basis for this statement, but as someone who works with small business contractors everyday, this will definitely benefit them.  Further, if we step back and look at the situation before the new limitations rules kicked in, the concept of similarly situated subcontractor already applied in SDVOSB and HUBZone set asides.

Rats, I forgot.