SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION 

RE:  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 (listed in section III) 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 Hearings.sizestandards@sba.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gary M. Jackson, Assistant Administrator for 

Size Standards, at (202) 205-6618 or at sizestandards@sba.gov.



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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

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 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.

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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

- We are updating the schedule -

    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 Hearings.sizestandards@sba.gov. 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.