Published January 2005

SBA taking comment
on size standards

SCBJ Staff

The U.S. Small Business Administration is seeking comment from the public on issues relating to its small-business size standards, the rules used by the SBA and other federal agencies to determine whether a business is small.

Last March, SBA proposed to restructure its size standards by reducing the number of different size categories from 37 to 10, and by expressing all size standards in terms of the number of a company’s employees. In comments submitted to the SBA, the public expressed concern about several aspects of SBA’s approach, prompting the SBA to withdraw that proposal for further study on July 1.

The SBA published a notice of the comment-seeking process in The Federal Register on Dec. 3. That notice, an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, didn’t propose any specific changes to the agency’s size standards. However, before SBA considers a different approach to restructuring its size standards, it is seeking comments on a number of general issues that were raised by the public in response to the March 2004 proposed rule.

Public comments concerning this advanced notice, due by Feb. 1, should be identified by the code RIN 3245-ZA02, and can be made by the following methods:

• E-mail: restructure.sizestandards@sba.gov. Include RIN 3245-ZA02 in the subject line of the message.
• Fax: 202-205-6930.
• Mail: Gary M. Jackson, Assistant Administrator for Size Standards, 409 Third St. SW, Washington, DC 20416.

For more information on SBA size standards, go online to www.sba.gov/size/anprm.html or www.regulations.gov, call 202-205-6618 or send e-mail to sizestandards@sba.gov.

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