Small Business Size Standards; Public Hearings, 25133-25134 [05-9428]
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Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 91 / Thursday, May 12, 2005 / Notices
(202) 481–0681, e-mail:
Ericka.Fisher@sba.gov.
Matthew K. Becker,
Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 05–9497 Filed 5–11–05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8025–01–M
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
National Women’s Business Council;
Notice of Public Meeting
In accordance with the Women’s
Business Ownership Act, Public Law
106–554 as amended, the National
Women’s Business Council (NWBC)
would like to announce a forthcoming
Council meeting. The meeting will take
place on Thursday, May 26, 2005,
starting at 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. The
meeting will be held at Carlson
Companies, 701 Carlson Parkway,
Minnetonka, Minnesota 55305. The
meeting will discuss the National
Women’s Business Council’s agenda
and action items for fiscal year 2005,
included and not limited to
procurement, access to capital, access to
training and technical assistance, access
to markets and affordable health care.
Anyone wishing to attend and make
an oral presentation must contact
Katherine Stanley in writing or by fax
no later than Monday, May 23, 2005, in
order to be put on the agenda. Katherine
Stanley, Administrative Officer, U.S.
Small Business Administration,
National Women’s Business Council,
409 3rd Street, SW., Washington, DC
20416, phone (202) 205–3850, fax (202)
481–2101, e-mail:
Katherine.Stanley@sba.gov.
Matthew K. Becker,
Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 05–9496 Filed 5–11–05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8025–01–P
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Small Business Size Standards; Public
Hearings
U.S. Small Business
Administration.
ACTION: Notice of public hearings.
AGENCY:
SUMMARY: The U.S. Small Business
Administration (SBA) announces that it
is holding a series of public hearings
throughout the country 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
VerDate jul<14>2003
19:04 May 11, 2005
Jkt 205001
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.
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
PO 00000
Frm 00120
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
25133
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 majorityowned 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
A panel of SBA officials will preside
over 11 formal public hearings. The
purpose of the 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 be 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
E:\FR\FM\12MYN1.SGM
12MYN1
25134
Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 91 / Thursday, May 12, 2005 / Notices
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 majorityowned 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
Registration
closing date
Location
Address
Hearing date
Seattle, WA ............................
Small Business Administration, 1200 6th Ave., Suite 1700,
Seattle, Washington 98101.
St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, MultiPurpose Room, 3400 Pershall Road, St. Louis, MO
63135–1499.
City Hall, 389 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101 ...........
Atlanta Fulton County Public Library—3rd Floor Meeting
Room, 1 Margaret Mitchell Square, Atlanta, GA 30303.
U.S. Federal Building, 1961 Stout Street, Room 239, Denver, Colorado 80202.
Jacob Javitz Federal Building, 6th Floor Conference Room
B, 26 Federal Plaza, New York, NY 10278.
Small Business Administration, 409 Third Street, SW., Eisenhower Conference Room, Washington, DC 20416.
Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building, 77 West Jackson
Blvd., Morrison Room, Chicago, IL 60604.
Bill J. Priest Institute, 1402 Corinth Ave., Dallas, TX 75215
San Francisco District Office, 455 Market Street, 6th Floor,
San Francisco, CA 94105–2420.
Small Business Administration, Los Angeles District Office,
330 North Brand, Suite 1200, Glendale, CA 91203.
June 2, 2005 .........................
May 26, 2005.
June 2, 2005 .........................
May 26, 2005.
June 7, 2005 .........................
June 9, 2005 .........................
May 31, 2005.
June 2, 2005.
June 14, 2005 .......................
June 7, 2005.
June 16, 2005 .......................
June 9, 2005.
June 17, 2005 .......................
June 10, 2005.
June 20, 2005 .......................
June 13, 2005.
June 22, 2005 .......................
June 28, 2005 .......................
June 15, 2005.
June 21, 2005.
June 29, 2005 .......................
June 22, 2005.
St. Louis, MO .........................
Portland, ME ..........................
Atlanta, GA .............................
Denver, CO ............................
New York, NY ........................
Washington, DC .....................
Chicago, IL .............................
Dallas, TX ...............................
San Francisco, CA .................
Los Angeles, CA ....................
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
VerDate jul<14>2003
19:04 May 11, 2005
Jkt 205001
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
PO 00000
Frm 00121
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
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 https://www.sba.gov/size.
Dated: May 5, 2005.
Allegra F. McCullough,
Associate Deputy Administrator for
Government Contracting and Business
Development.
[FR Doc. 05–9428 Filed 5–11–05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8025–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
[Public Notice 5076]
Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs (ECA) Request for Grant
Proposals: Afghanistan School
Administrator Project
Announcement Type: New Grant.
Funding Opportunity Number: ECA/
A/S/X–05–02.
E:\FR\FM\12MYN1.SGM
12MYN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 91 (Thursday, May 12, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25133-25134]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-9428]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Small Business Size Standards; Public Hearings
AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration.
ACTION: Notice of public hearings.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announces that it
is holding a series of public hearings throughout the country 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.
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
A panel of SBA officials will preside over 11 formal public
hearings. The purpose of the 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
be 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
[[Page 25134]]
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location Address Hearing date Registration closing date
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seattle, WA....................... Small Business June 2, 2005........ May 26, 2005.
Administration, 1200 6th
Ave., Suite 1700,
Seattle, Washington 98101.
St. Louis, MO..................... St. Louis Community June 2, 2005........ May 26, 2005.
College at Florissant
Valley, Multi-Purpose
Room, 3400 Pershall Road,
St. Louis, MO 63135-1499.
Portland, ME...................... City Hall, 389 Congress June 7, 2005........ May 31, 2005.
Street, Portland, ME
04101.
Atlanta, GA....................... Atlanta Fulton County June 9, 2005........ June 2, 2005.
Public Library--3rd Floor
Meeting Room, 1 Margaret
Mitchell Square, Atlanta,
GA 30303.
Denver, CO........................ U.S. Federal Building, June 14, 2005....... June 7, 2005.
1961 Stout Street, Room
239, Denver, Colorado
80202.
New York, NY...................... Jacob Javitz Federal June 16, 2005....... June 9, 2005.
Building, 6th Floor
Conference Room B, 26
Federal Plaza, New York,
NY 10278.
Washington, DC.................... Small Business June 17, 2005....... June 10, 2005.
Administration, 409 Third
Street, SW., Eisenhower
Conference Room,
Washington, DC 20416.
Chicago, IL....................... Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal June 20, 2005....... June 13, 2005.
Building, 77 West Jackson
Blvd., Morrison Room,
Chicago, IL 60604.
Dallas, TX........................ Bill J. Priest Institute, June 22, 2005....... June 15, 2005.
1402 Corinth Ave.,
Dallas, TX 75215.
San Francisco, CA................. San Francisco District June 28, 2005....... June 21, 2005.
Office, 455 Market
Street, 6th Floor, San
Francisco, CA 94105-2420.
Los Angeles, CA................... Small Business June 29, 2005....... June 22, 2005.
Administration, Los
Angeles District Office,
330 North Brand, Suite
1200, Glendale, CA 91203.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 https://www.sba.gov/size.
Dated: May 5, 2005.
Allegra F. McCullough,
Associate Deputy Administrator for Government Contracting and Business
Development.
[FR Doc. 05-9428 Filed 5-11-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8025-01-P
