Before SBA moves the first door, it should count who is standing behind it

federal contractingWOSB
Written By ASBCC Admin

FILED SEPTEMBER 16, 2026 · SBA-2026-0199 + SBA-2026-0265 · PUBLIC COMMENT

U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce® filed its principal comments on SBA's proposed size standards on September 16, in both dockets.

Every company competing for a contract set aside for women-owned small businesses has to be small first. Being small is the first door. SBA is proposing to move that door in 980 industries, including the 733 where women-owned set-asides are allowed at all.

SBA's notice says how many companies nationwide would become small. It does not say how many of them are women-owned. It does not say how many are certified. It does not say how many are in industries where the program even operates.

What we asked SBA to do

We did not argue that the proposed numbers are too high. Other commenters have made that case. We asked SBA to measure the effect on this program before the rule is final, not after — and each of these is something SBA can answer or visibly fail to answer:

  • For every industry where women-owned set-asides are allowed, show who becomes small and who stops being small — and how many of them are certified. The program's own rules turn on that number. It is not in the notice.
  • Explain the 19 designated industry families the proposal splits into different groups, and keep those industries separate where the explanation isn't there.
  • Say how the new method still accounts for federal contracting, now that the two measures of it that the earlier methodology used have been taken out.
  • Say what happens on day one. What a newly small company can and cannot compete for, and what changes for the women-owned companies already competing there.
  • On the methodology, map the old to the new. Show where each of the former seven factors and each consideration in 13 C.F.R. § 121.102 now sits, and explain choosing a Census data source that sizes companies only by employment and stops counting at 500.
  • Then reopen comment for 60 days once that material is published.

This is not opposition to modernizing size standards

It is a request that the agency measure a program Congress created before changing the threshold that governs entry to it.

Why we argued it this way

An objection to a number is an opinion. An agency can record it and move on.

A request for a specific published figure is different. Either SBA publishes how many certified women-owned firms are affected in each designated industry, or the final rule issues without it — and the absence is visible to anyone who looks. That is a question with a checkable answer, which is why we asked it that way.

The evidence is published, and you can check it

We are asking SBA to publish its analysis. We are not asking anyone to take ours on trust.

The federal-market screens this letter relies on were performed and published by The American Small Business Chamber of Commerce™ and its Federal Marketplace Index™. We reviewed that work and interpreted it for the women-owned set-aside program. It is archived, citable and free to download:

  • Federal Marketplace Index — Size Standards Rulemaking Analysis Data Deposit, v1.0, 32 files, published September 16, 2026. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22778860
  • federalmarketplaceindex.org — the methodology and the full change record. Anyone can open the data and test what we said against it. That is the standard we are asking SBA to meet.

The record of the filing

USWCC filed in the methodology docket first, then in the size standards docket, both on the evening of September 16, and both are now posted and public. The same 86-page letter, including exhibits, is on both dockets. It builds on the extension request USWCC filed on August 24 and corrects one sentence in that earlier letter.

SBA held its virtual public forum on September 17, four days before the record closes, and said in advance that its officials would not respond substantively to testimony given there. The written record is where this is decided.

The record closes on Monday

Your own comment still counts, and it does not have to agree with ours.

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