There are many ways to kick off a weekend, and “liveblogging” a youtube video of a Congressional oversight hearing on LinkedIn is…honestly, it has got to be one of the least popular options. Still, for bizarre reasons that I cannot fully explain, this past Friday, that’s what I did.

The hearing was entitled “Oversight of the SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract Program”, and for those of you who want to watch it in all of its glory, you can view it here. If you would rather save an hour, here are the highlights:

  • SBA’s overall concept (“blueprint”) is to create a (mostly) common process for certification across the various socio-economic programs (8(a), SDVOSB, WOSB). This makes a certain amount of sense!
  • However, they are concerned that they are going to be swamped with the volume of applications.
  • SBA does not know how much money , how many staff, or what new systems they will need in order to implement the new rule (possibly 3x as many resources as are currently required for 8(a) certification?). Expect processing delays!
  • SBA is targeting June of 2021 for implementation of the certification program.

Overall, though it just seemed like the Committee wanted to give the witness from the SBA, Mr. Robb N. Wong (Associate Administrator, Office of Government Contracting and Business Development), a sound verbal thrashing. Specifically:

  • Chairman Golden at 13:04: “It is difficult for me not to wonder when we would have seen [Tuesday’s proposed rule] issued had we not scheduled this hearing”.
  • Ranking Member Stauber: “Let me be clear, the issuance of the proposed rule on May 14 does not absolve the SBA.” The “Now go to your room and don’t come out until the rule goes Final” was implied…
  • Witness Shear (GAO), summarized: Yeah, SBA really dropped the ball on this one, then dropped it again, and kept dropping it for four forking years.
  • Golden: give it to me straight–what *really* happened? Why did it take so long? Shear: You got me, pal! “I am still at a loss to try to figure out why this proposed rule took so long”.

The Committee instructed SBA to come up with budgetary and staffing estimates for implementation of the certification program, and–they were very clear on this–include timelines for implementation. We’ll see what happens, so maybe stay tuned for future “liveblogs” of exciting (?) Congressional hearings!