SBA Plans Comprehensive Overhaul Of HUBZone Program

In response to President Trump's Executive Order to reduce regulatory burdens and control regulatory costs, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has proposed a rule to amend its regulations for the Historically Under-utilized Business Zones (HUBZone) Program.  The proposed rule promises to bring certainty and stability to a program that has been among SBA's most challenging compliance hurdles.  In recent years, these hurdles have caused the federal government to fall consistently short of its goal to award at least 3% of all federal contracting dollars to HUBZone firms.

Under current law, to qualify for the HUBZone program, a business (except tribally-owned concerns) must (a) qualify as a small business, (b) be owned and controlled at least 51% by U.S. citizens, or a Community Development Corporation, or an agricultural cooperative or an Indian tribe, (c) have its principal office in a HUBZone (including lands considered "Indian Country" and military