SBA To Issue Final Rule Significantly Expanding Mentor Protégé Program On Monday

In a long awaited final rule, the Small Business Administration will issue regulations expanding its existing Mentor Protégé program to all any small business to be a protégé on Monday, July 25.  As we have previously discussed in our June 23^rd and June 14^th blog posts, under the existing mentor-protégé program only participants in the SBA's 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business program could team with large business mentors to pursue small business set aside contracts.  The new rule will expand the field of possible protégé's to include thousands of small businesses that do business with the federal government.  This will allow many more firms to reap the benefits of the program, including business development assistance for the protégé and the potential to perform 60% of awarded work for the mentor.  Given that SBA was not provided additional funding to administer the larger program, contractors will want to prepare for the expansion and request approval of their