IV. Regulatory Flexibility Act

The change may have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities within the meaning of the Regulatory Flexibility Act 5 U.S.C. 601, et seq. The Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) is summarized as follows:

The objective of this rule is to implement section 825 of the NDAA for FY 2011, which extended the sunset date for Title 10 agencies and section 813 of the NDAA for FY 2012, which extended the sunset date for Title 41 agencies.

The authority to file protests against the award of task or delivery orders is relatively new, and there is little data available, as such protests may be filed with the agency or Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO has exclusive jurisdiction of a protest of an order valued in excess of $10 million. Data on agency-level protests is not compiled outside the agency concerned; therefore estimates are based on the total number of protests filed at the GAO in FYs 2009, 2010 and 2011. The data was extracted from GAO's report to the Congress for those fiscal years.

Offerors can protest to the agency or to the GAO. Assuming that one-half of all protests are filed with the GAO and the other half are filed with the agency, then the average number of protests filed per fiscal year would be 6,700 (see below):

Protests may be filed against the award of contracts as well as certain task or delivery orders. There are few prohibitions on the grounds for protests against the award of a contract. However, protests against the award of a task or delivery order are limited to (a) a protest on the grounds that the order increases the scope, period, or maximum value of the contract; or (b) a protest of an order valued in excess of $10 million. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that less than 50 percent of the total number of protests filed is against the award of a task or delivery order. A generous estimate is approximately one-fourth, or 1,117. Likewise, only a percentage of the protests against the award of a task or delivery order are made by small businesses. Even if we assume that percentage to be one-half, then the number of protests filed by small businesses against the award of a task or delivery order is estimated to be 559.

The number 17 represents the number of small business task or delivery order protests sustained in a fiscal year. This number is representative of protests against awards by all Government agencies.

There is no requirement for small entities to submit any information under this provision. Therefore, no professional skills are necessary on the part of small entities for compliance, and the cost to small entities associated with this provision is $0.

The Regulatory Secretariat will be submitting a copy of the Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA) to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration. A copy of the IRFA may be obtained from the Regulatory Secretariat. DoD, GSA, and NASA invite comments from small business concerns and other interested parties on the expected impact of this rule on small entities.

DoD, GSA, and NASA will also consider comments from small entities concerning the existing regulations in subparts affected by this rule in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 610. Interested parties must submit such comments separately and should cite 5 U.S.C. 610 (FAC 2005-60, FAR Case 2012-007) in correspondence.