SAME’s 2022 Federal Small Business Conference for the A/E/C Industry in Nashville, Tenn., served as a venue for deepening the Society’s commitment to bringing public and private perspectives together in collaborative industry government engagement. Through executive meetings, presentations, and the semi-annual convocation of the Executive Advisory Group, progress was made on a variety of pressing issues facing the nation’s engineering needs.
Beyond “Small”—Survival and the Shrinking Industrial Base. In a presentation hosted on Day One of the conference, the coalition leading this national IGE project briefed the audience on current efforts for a legislative proposal to create a pilot program that would allow businesses in specific NAICS codes a one-time seven-year “ramp up” window. While in this “ramp up” program, the transitioning business would still be able to bid on certain small business contracts while growing out of the small business size standard. Along with discussing details of the proposal, members of the project offered insights on potential roadblocks ahead to seeing the proposal come to fruition.
Military Construction Reform Update. Also on Day One, Mike McAndrew, SES, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Construction, briefed attendees on ongoing reforms at the Defense Department to align stakeholders earlier in the process, refine cost estimates, and increase partnering. An example is the Project Management Agreement, a new document being developed aimed at bringing stakeholders together early on and discuss potential issues, with the goal of solving them on paper. McAndrew remarked that the concept is expected to be piloted in FY2026. He also noted his office had put out mandates requiring USACE and NAVFAC to do an assessment of all 1391s that are going to Congress and assert that, one, they had seen them before, and two, affirm the cost estimates have a reasonable chance of being executed.
CPARS, Changes Are Coming! Another IGE project that presented at SBC addresses the CPARS process and potential reforms to the rating system. The project team commented that they had looked to the subfactors present in the old CCASS and ACASS system as an “80 percent solution” and developed a new set of subfactors. These subfactors (which, the team noted, were still in draft form) broke down the broad rating categories into more measurable factors. The next step would be permission to proceed on from the draft stage, currently targeted for May 2023.
Executive Perspective
During the 2022 SBC, SAME convened the Executive Advisory Group, which is comprised of the Society’s National Leadership Team and senior executives from the uniformed services and several federal agencies. The Executive Advisory Group meets twice a year and is a critical component of SAME’s governance model as it enables the public sector stakeholders an opportunity to offer guidance and feedback on key issues impacting their organizations. The meeting also offered a chance for several IGE project leads to provide updates and gather input from government decision-makers on their ongoing efforts. The projects briefed included CPARS Education Reform; Raising Awareness of Current and Emerging Cyber Threats to Smart Operational Technologies; Avoiding PFAS Information Overload; and Alternative Project Delivery Methods. Among notable outcomes from the meeting, the PFAS project was provided senior points of contact at the Defense Department to coordinate with and see where SAME’s efforts in this matter can provide value at the installation level.
Additionally, U.S. Coast Guard leadership expressed interest in participating in both the CPARs and alternative delivery projects, noting how its unique contracting authorities can offer a different perspective that may not currently be captured through other stakeholders.
