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Jayna Rust Quoted by CNBC on Economic Tests for 8(a) Business Development Program Applicants
October 25, 2023
In a new CNBC article, Thompson Coburn partner Jayna Rust comments on changes in the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program resulting from recent legal challenges. The 8(a) program assists socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses in obtaining federal contracts. The legal challenges argued that the SBA's previous approach, which presumed social disadvantage based on racial identity, was unconstitutional.
Rust noted in the article that businesses applying for the first time to the program must demonstrate economic disadvantage through personal net worth, adjusted gross income and assets. This is still a condition to be approved for the program, along with annual review requirements. “If you thought it was going to be valuable before, and you were willing to go through the application process, the same value is there, and the application process is not that much different,” Rust said.
Read the full article here.