Small Business Size Standards: Adjustment of Monetary-Based Size Standards, Disadvantage Thresholds, and 8(a) Eligibility Thresholds for Inflation

This rulemaking finalizes, without change, the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA or Agency) 2019 interim final rule (RIN 3245-AH17) that adjusted monetary-based industry size standards (i.e., receipts- and assets-based) for inflation that occurred since 2014. This rulemaking also includes three interim final actions. First, SBA adds an additional 13.65 percent inflation increase to the monetary small business size standards, which have been recently adjusted as part of the second five-year review of size standards pursuant to the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (Jobs Act). This concurrent additional adjustment accounts for the inflation that has occurred since 2019 that has not been adequately addressed by the Agency's previous adjustments to its small business size standards under the Jobs Act. Second, this rulemaking adjusts three program-specific monetary size standards to account for inflation: the size standards for sales or leases of government property, the size standards for stockpile purchases, and alternative size standard based on tangible net worth and net income for the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program. Third, SBA adjusts for inflation the economic disadvantage thresholds applicable to the 8(a) Business Development and Economically Disadvantaged Women- Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) programs, and the dollar limit for combined total 8(a) contracts.