Federal Acquisition Regulation; Small Business

The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council has agreed on a final rule to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement sections 7101(a) and 7106 and to augment regulation implementation of Section 10004 of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-355), dated October 13, 1994. Section 7101(a) of FASA deletes sections 15(e) and (f) from the Small Business Act. Those sections established the priority for award of set-asides and provided the statutory basis for a procurement preference for concerns located in Labor Surplus Areas (LSA). Based on this deletion, this rule removes the LSA set-aside program and LSA subcontracting program from the FAR. Section 7106 of FASA revises sections 8 and 15 of the Small Business Act to accommodate a Governmentwide goal of 5 percent for women-owned small businesses. This rule deletes existing, separate coverage relating to women-owned businesses and revises existing coverage to place women-owned small businesses on an equal footing with small disadvantaged businesses. In connection with this revision, the Standard Forms 294 and 295 are revised and streamlined. Section 10004 of FASA, which requires the collection of specified data through the Federal Procurement Data System, is being implemented by FAR case 94-701. This rule augments that coverage by providing a solicitation provision to collect the information on women-owned businesses as required by that FAR case. This regulatory action was subject to Office of Management and Budget review under Executive Order 12866, dated September 30, 1993.