H.R. 1773

Clarity for America's Small Contractors Act of 2017

This bill amends the Small Business Act to require the annual Small Business Administration (SBA) reports to the President and Congress analyzing the number and dollar amount of prime contracts awarded by federal agencies each fiscal year to specified kinds of small business concerns to include awards that were purchased by another entity after the initial contract was awarded. The concern would no longer be deemed to be a small business because of such purchase. The SBA must also report on awards to small businesses that were awarded using a procurement method other than a small business set-aside, preference, or full and open competition.

The bill revises the range of the anticipated value of federal procurement contracts that must be reserved exclusively for small business concerns to between the micro-purchase threshold ($3,000) and the simplified acquisition threshold ($100,000). (Currently the range of the anticipated value must be between $2,500 and $100,000.)

The bill specifies the principal duties of commercial market representatives, including to help prime contractors find small business concerns that are capable of performing subcontracts.

This bill: (1) extends for three years the deadline after which a person serving as an SBA business opportunity specialist must have a Level I Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting or the equivalent Department of Defense certification; and (2) declares that the exclusive duties of such a specialist who reports to the senior official appointed by the SBA with certain SBA loan responsibilities, including the procurement program for small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans and the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) program, shall be to implement specified SBA loan programs and to complete other duties related to contracting programs.