The Draft FY 2025 Senate NDAA Proposes a Small Business Bill of Rights

Back in early calendar year 2023, the Department of Defense (DOD) published a new Small Business Strategy intended to support small business contractors currently working with or seeking to work with the department. Inflation, supply chain crises, and regulatory impediments have combined in recent years to create a kind of perfect storm for small businesses. These types of companies, however, offer the DOD a lot of innovative solutions, so the department simply cannot afford to ignore the hardships they face.

The Senate appears ready to further support the DOD’s efforts by proposing a Small Business Bill of Rights in the draft version of its National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 (Bill number S.4638).

Section 862 of the draft bill calls for the Secretary of Defense, using the recently established Small Business Integration Group, and led by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, to “develop and adopt a Small Business Bill of Rights for the Department and its components.”

“The purpose of the Small Business Bill of Rights,” continues the section, “is to make sure customer service issues and conflicts related to acquisitions are resolved in an expeditious manner at the lowest level possible, increasing the likelihood that small businesses continue to conduct business with the Department, and ultimately fostering a healthier partnership with the defense industrial base.”

The bill’s language acknowledges that navigating red tape at the DOD is a major challenge for small businesses, and is in fact a barrier that keeps many from trying to do business with the department.

Concerning the specifics, the proposed Bill of Rights requires the DOD to:

• Give small business professionals the authority to ask department acquisition professionals about issues related to customer service, to obtain timely responses, and to establish a resolution process that all DOD components must adhere to, including reporting appropriate metrics to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Office of Small Business Programs, and Congress to ensure compliance and identify trends and solutions.
• Establish guidance requiring that defense acquisition personnel respond to small business inquiries within a reasonable and practical amount of time.
• Ensure that small business program offices across the DOD provide accurate and easily attainable point of contact information to render service during normal duty hours.
• Mitigate unresolved inquiries from small businesses at the defense component small business office level at the request of the originator.
• Track and report annual metrics of customer service issues within the DOD to the Secretary of Defense and Congress, including information on the type of issue, the component, the resolution, and trends.

Should this section make it into the final bill, it will at least smooth the way for small businesses working with the DOD to communicate with small business offices and acquisition personnel. Small businesses will still need to navigate the labyrinth of program offices at the DOD (small business officers can help), but at least one avenue of contact will be wider than before.