e.  Part 219

Comment: One respondent recommended that the proposed rule should not apply to small business set-asides. Another respondent requested clarification as to whether the proposed rule was intended to be applicable to small business programs. Although the rule did not specifically make any changes to FAR part 19, there may be impact through references in FAR 19.502-4 (Methods of conducting set-asides) to conducting the set-aside using the procedures of FAR parts 13, 14, or 15; and FAR 19.806 (Pricing the 8(a) contract) requires the contracting officer to price the 8(a) contract in accordance with FAR subpart 15.4. More specifically, the respondent pointed to FAR 19.502-2(a), which provides that "If the contracting officer received only one acceptable offer from a responsible small business concern in response to a set-aside, the contracting officer should make an award to that firm." There is comparable language in FAR 19.1305(c) for HUBZone set-asides, 19.1405(c) for service-disabled veteran-owned small business set-aside procedures, 19.1505(d) for women-owned small business program set-asides.

Response: An exception has been added at DFARS 215.371-4(b) to the 30-day resolicitation requirement at DFARS 215.371-2. The final rule does not preclude any requirement that was set-aside under the authority of FAR 19.1305, 19.1405 or 19.1505 from being awarded, if only one acceptable offer was received.

The intent still is to ensure that prices and/or costs obtained by the offeror are fair, reasonable, and in the best interest of the Government, even by small businesses. Based on market research, the contracting officer is reasonably expected not to set-aside a requirement for competition, unless there is a "reasonable expectation that offers will be received from two or more small business concerns and that award will be made at a fair market price." If only one acceptable offer is received from a competitive set-aside, then the procedures at DFARS 215.371-3 for determination of a fair and reasonable price apply equally to small business set-asides.