One of the key benefits of the 8(a) BD Mentor-Protégé Program and the ASMPP is that they allow mentors and protégés to form joint ventures that are eligible to compete for small business set-aside contracts, so long as their joint venture agreement (JVA) meets certain requirements. Mentor-Protégé Joint Venture Rule Changes However, the vast majority of comments opposed this limitation and SBA did not adopt it in the Final Rule. In its Proposed Rule, SBA sought comments on whether mentors should be limited to firms with annual revenues less than $100 million. In the event of termination, the protégé may substitute a new mentor for the time remaining under the mentor-protégé agreement and the substituted mentor will not count against the protégé’s two-mentor limit.įinally, as concerns the ASMPP, it is notable that SBA did not adopt any limitation on the size of eligible mentors. If a protégé asks the SBA to intervene, the SBA may terminate the agreement if it the mentor does not adequately rebut the protégé’s allegation. The Final Rule also includes a new process for the SBA to intervene on behalf of the protégé if the mentor does not satisfy its commitment to provide assistance to the protégé. Moreover, the Final Rule amends the ASMPP regulations to provide that a mentor-protégé relationship will not count towards a firm’s two permitted lifetime relationships if the mentor-protégé agreement is terminated within 18 months from the date of the SBA’s approval. The Final Rule specifies that any mentor-protégé relationship approved under the 8(a) BD Mentor-Protégé Program will count as one of the two lifetime relationships that a small business may have under the ASMPP. Thus, an existing 8(a) mentor-protégé relationship in its second year could continue for another four years under the ASMPP. The term of a mentor-protégé agreement cannot exceed six years, including extensions. The SBA consolidated these programs to avoid confusion in the small business community and remove unnecessary duplication of functions within the SBA.Įxisting 8(a) mentor-protégé relationships will continue under the ASMPP and will have the same remaining time in the ASMPP as they would have had in the 8(a) BD Mentor-Protégé Program. Moreover, affiliation between the mentor and the protégé may not be found based solely on the assistance provided pursuant to their mentor-protégé agreement.īecause the benefits of these programs are identical, the Final Rule eliminates the 8(a) BD Mentor-Protégé Program and consolidates it with the ASMPP.

Both programs allow mentor firms to provide valuable business development assistance to small business protégé firms. These changes take effect on November 16, 2020.įor several years, the SBA has administrated two separate mentor-protégé programs – the 8(a) BD Mentor-Protégé Program, which is available to 8(a) Participants only, and the All-Small Mentor-Protégé Program (“ASMPP”), which is available to all small businesses. This article summarizes the key elements of the Final Rule that contractors need to know. The Final Rule includes changes to the regulations that govern a variety of issues including mentor-protégé joint ventures, affiliation between joint venture partners, the timing of size and socioeconomic status recertification for task and delivery orders, the 8(a) Business Development (BD) Program’s “once an 8(a), always an 8(a)” rule, and more. The changes are also important for larger businesses considering the competitive benefits of teaming with small businesses to win federal contracts. On October 16, 2020, the Small Business Administration (SBA) published a Final Rule that consolidates its mentor-protégé programs and makes various other important rule changes that will impact small business government contractors.

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