[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 91 (Thursday, May 12, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25133-25134]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-9428]


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SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION


Small Business Size Standards; Public Hearings

AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration.

ACTION: Notice of public hearings.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announces that it 
is holding a series of public hearings throughout the country on the 
topic of small business size standards and other issues such as the 
possible participation of businesses majority-owned by venture capital 
companies in the Small Business Innovation Research Program. Testimony 
presented at these hearings will become part of the administrative 
record for SBA's consideration when the Agency deliberates on 
approaches to simplify and restructure size standards and other changes 
to make size standards easier to understand and use.

DATES: The Public Hearings Section below specifies the dates and 
locations of the public hearings. Attendees must pre-register 5 
business days prior to the scheduled hearing date.

ADDRESSES: Parties interested in testifying at or attending a public 
hearing must pre-register by providing a request to SBA's Office of 
Size Standards at [email protected]">Hearings.[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gary M. Jackson, Assistant 
Administrator for Size Standards, at (202) 205-6618 or at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    On March 19, 2004, SBA published a proposed rule to simplify and 
restructure its small business size standards by establishing most size 
standards based on the number of employees of a business concern and by 
significantly reducing the number of different size standard levels (69 
FR 13130). Based on concerns expressed by a large number of commenters, 
SBA decided to withdraw that proposal on July 1, 2004 (69 FR 39874). 
However, a large number of commenters also supported the proposal in 
general or supported certain aspects of the proposed changes. As a 
result, SBA decided to reconsider its initial approach to simplifying 
and restructuring size standards and seek public input on the general 
issue of size standards, including how best to simplify and restructure 
size standards.
    SBA is pursuing two actions to engage the public in providing its 
views of SBA's size standards. First, SBA published an Advance Notice 
of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on December 3, 2004, requesting comment 
on a variety of size standards issues (69 FR 70197). Most of those 
issues were presented in the comments SBA had received in response to 
the March 19, 2004, proposed rule, but were not part of the proposed 
changes. SBA believes that it is beneficial to its evaluation of the 
comments raising those issues to provide the public at large with an 
opportunity to consider and comment upon them. SBA also included 
several issues in the ANPRM that it had under consideration as separate 
policy changes apart from the simplification and restructuring 
proposal. Specifically, the issues presented in the ANPRM consist of: 
(1) The approach to simplify size standards, (2) the calculation of 
number of employees (including how SBA defines an employee for size 
purposes), (3) the use of receipts-based size standards, (4) the 
designation of size standards for Federal procurements, (5) the 
establishment of separate and distinct size standards for use solely in 
Federal procurement programs, (6) the establishment of tiered size 
standards, (7) the simplification of the affiliation regulations, (8) 
the simplification of the small business joint venture eligibility 
regulations, (9) the possible grandfathering of small business 
eligibility, (10) the impact of SBA size standards on the regulations 
of other Federal agencies, and (11) the possible participation of 
businesses majority-owned by venture capital companies in the Small 
Business Innovation Research Program and the effect such participation 
would have on the Program. The ANPRM comment period closed on April 3, 
2005.
    Second, because of the significance of the size standards 
initiative and importance of the other issues being considered, SBA 
decided to conduct a series of public hearings around the country to 
provide interested parties with an opportunity to meet with SBA 
officials and discuss their views on the issues. SBA considers the 
public hearings a valuable component of its deliberations. While the 
comments received to the ANPRM are greatly assisting SBA with its 
deliberations, the public hearings allow for a constructive dialogue 
with the public on these issues enabling SBA to more fully comprehend 
the views of the public. This notice provides information on the 
purpose, format, scheduling, and registration for the public hearings.

II. Public Hearings

    A panel of SBA officials will preside over 11 formal public 
hearings. The purpose of the hearings is to obtain the views of SBA's 
stakeholders on approaches to simplify and restructure size standards, 
to identify other policy changes which may make size standards easier 
to understand and use, and to obtain stakeholder views on the other 
issues being considered such as the possible participation of 
businesses majority-owned by venture capital companies in the Small 
Business Innovation Research Program. Oral and written testimony will 
be become part of the hearing record for SBA's consideration. SBA will 
analyze the hearing testimony along with the comments it received to 
the March 19, 2004, proposed rule and the December 3, 2004, ANPRM in 
formulating a new proposal regarding approaches

[[Page 25134]]

simplifying and restructuring size standards, other policies to make 
size standards easier to use and understand, and the other issues being 
considered.
    Individuals testifying before SBA will be limited to a 5 minute 
oral presentation. SBA officials may ask questions of a presenter to 
clarify or further explain the testimony. Since the purpose of the 
hearings is to assist SBA with gathering information to potentially 
develop new proposals, SBA will not respond as to whether it agrees 
with the views or position of the presenter's testimony.
    SBA requests that the testimony focus on the issues discussed in 
the ANPRM, the general issue of simplifying size standards, other 
improvements to size standards, or any of the other issues identified 
such as the possible participation of businesses majority-owned by 
venture capital companies in the Small Business Innovation Research 
Program. SBA encourages presenters to review the ANPRM for a further 
discussion of the issues. SBA requests that the presenters do not raise 
issues pertaining to other aspects of SBA's small business programs. 
Issues not raised in the ANPRM are more properly suited for a different 
forum than these hearings. Also, the hearings are not intended for the 
public to petition for a change to a specific size standard. Parties 
interested in SBA considering a change to a particular industry size 
standard may submit a request to SBA as described in the small business 
regulations at 13 CFR 121.102.
    Oral testimony will be recorded and transcribed. Presenters shall 
provide a written copy of their testimony. SBA will accept written 
material that the presenter wishes to provide that further supplements 
his or her testimony. SBA encourages presenters to provide SBA with an 
electronic or digitized copy of their written testimony and 
supplemental information.

III. Hearing Schedule

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             Location                         Address               Hearing date      Registration  closing date
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seattle, WA.......................  Small Business              June 2, 2005........  May 26, 2005.
                                     Administration, 1200 6th
                                     Ave., Suite 1700,
                                     Seattle, Washington 98101.
St. Louis, MO.....................  St. Louis Community         June 2, 2005........  May 26, 2005.
                                     College at Florissant
                                     Valley, Multi-Purpose
                                     Room, 3400 Pershall Road,
                                     St. Louis, MO 63135-1499.
Portland, ME......................  City Hall, 389 Congress     June 7, 2005........  May 31, 2005.
                                     Street, Portland, ME
                                     04101.
Atlanta, GA.......................  Atlanta Fulton County       June 9, 2005........  June 2, 2005.
                                     Public Library--3rd Floor
                                     Meeting Room, 1 Margaret
                                     Mitchell Square, Atlanta,
                                     GA 30303.
Denver, CO........................  U.S. Federal Building,      June 14, 2005.......  June 7, 2005.
                                     1961 Stout Street, Room
                                     239, Denver, Colorado
                                     80202.
New York, NY......................  Jacob Javitz Federal        June 16, 2005.......  June 9, 2005.
                                     Building, 6th Floor
                                     Conference Room B, 26
                                     Federal Plaza, New York,
                                     NY 10278.
Washington, DC....................  Small Business              June 17, 2005.......  June 10, 2005.
                                     Administration, 409 Third
                                     Street, SW., Eisenhower
                                     Conference Room,
                                     Washington, DC 20416.
Chicago, IL.......................  Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal   June 20, 2005.......  June 13, 2005.
                                     Building, 77 West Jackson
                                     Blvd., Morrison Room,
                                     Chicago, IL 60604.
Dallas, TX........................  Bill J. Priest Institute,   June 22, 2005.......  June 15, 2005.
                                     1402 Corinth Ave.,
                                     Dallas, TX 75215.
San Francisco, CA.................  San Francisco District      June 28, 2005.......  June 21, 2005.
                                     Office, 455 Market
                                     Street, 6th Floor, San
                                     Francisco, CA 94105-2420.
Los Angeles, CA...................  Small Business              June 29, 2005.......  June 22, 2005.
                                     Administration, Los
                                     Angeles District Office,
                                     330 North Brand, Suite
                                     1200, Glendale, CA 91203.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Each hearing will be held for one day. The hearings will begin at 
8:30 a.m. and end at 5:30 p.m., with a break from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 
p.m., except for the Atlanta size standards hearing. The Atlanta size 
standards hearing will start at 9:30 a.m. and end at 6:30 p.m. SBA will 
adjourn the hearing early if all those registered have provided their 
testimony.

IV. Registration

    Anyone interested in testifying must pre-register in advance with 
SBA. Registration requests must be received by SBA at least 5 business 
days prior to the scheduled hearing date. Please contact the Office of 
Size Standards in writing at [email protected]">Hearings.[email protected]. Please 
include the following information relating to the person requesting to 
testify: Name, Title, Organization affiliation, Address, Telephone 
number, E-mail address, Fax number, and which hearing the presenter 
wants to attend to provide testimony. SBA will attempt to accommodate 
all interested parties that wish to present testimony. However, time 
considerations limit the total number of presenters at each hearing. If 
the number of individuals seek to testify at a specific hearing exceeds 
the number permitted due to time limitations, SBA will ask if any 
interested parties are able to attend a different hearing, and if that 
is not possible, will ask those requesting to testify last in time to 
submit their concerns in writing. To afford all interested parties an 
opportunity to participate in the hearings, an individual can register 
for only one hearing location.
    Parties that plan to attend the hearing but not testify must also 
pre-register. For those parties, please indicate in your registration 
that you will be attending the hearing but not making an oral 
presentation.
    SBA will confirm in writing the registration of presenters and 
attendees for the hearings. Participants will be notified of any 
changes regarding the schedule or conduct of the meeting. Information 
concerning the public hearings will be available on SBA's Internet site 
at http://www.sba.gov/size.

    Dated: May 5, 2005.
Allegra F. McCullough,
Associate Deputy Administrator for Government Contracting and Business 
Development.
[FR Doc. 05-9428 Filed 5-11-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8025-01-P