If you are a part of the 8(a) BD Program, this development impacts your firm on MAC/GWAC task orders, possibly more depending on the Senate’s companion legislation, and subsequent reconciliation and negotiation following what we hope to assume is passage of both differing versions. Paying close attention to the Protecting Small Business Competitions Act of 2025 (H.R. 2804), an important development in the federal procurement system, and landscape, would be an understatement. The House Small Business Committee just passed it unanimously (23-0), sending it to the full House. But just as important as the unanimous advancement was the momentum signaled by the broad bipartisan support behind it.

The Rule of Two is the foundation of our set-asides, but it's currently just a FAR regulation, leaving it exposed to regulatory rollbacks. H.R. 2804 explicitly writes the Rule of Two into the Small Business Act. This means permanent statutory protection for the mechanism that drives contracts to 8(a) Firms and other small businesses. However, before the committee passed the bill, they amended it to expressly exclude task orders and delivery orders from the Rule of Two. Since many 8(a) firms graduate and rely heavily on task orders under massive IDIQs and GWACs (like OASIS+, STARS III, etc.), this amendment to the bill could be a huge blow. It could essentially give agencies a free pass to ignore small businesses at the task order level on these large vehicles.

Of course, there are positives and negatives to the House’s version, but the Senate’s total Codification, that covers everything without exclusions, is the best hope. They are pushing their own version of the bill (S. 2656), and unlike the House version, the Senate bill keeps task orders and delivery orders protected under the Rule of Two.

This is a huge step forward for giving small business set-asides absolute traction in federal law, what has been consistently applied in practice would now have real teeth. The fight is far from over. As these bills move toward being hopefully finalized as close to Senate form as possible, industry advocacy is going to be critical to ensure the aforementioned version (which protects task orders) wins out over the House's amended version. It’s a lot to consume, but what I always recommend is reaching out to an industry expert such as ez8a to help ferry your federal contracting journey during confusing times of which this would very much be included. They do not charge for an initial consultation.