Why did the SBA suspend the receipt of applications for the SDB program?
A. Since FY 1999, SBA, on behalf of federal procuring agencies, certified Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDBs), which were then entitled to receive price evaluation adjustments of up to 10 percent for federal procurement. The SDB certification process is meant to ensure that only eligible firms received the SDB benefit (price evaluation adjustment). On December 9, 2004, statutory authority to use the SDB price evaluation adjustment ended for the majority of federal procuring agencies. Authority to use the adjustments was still permitted to three agencies, the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Coast Guard, which used it under separate authority running through 2009. Over the last six years, DOD, the largest procuring federal agency which represents approximately 68 percent of federal procurement, met its SDB procurement goal without the use of the price evaluation adjustment tool. Without the SDB price evaluation adjustment for prime contracts, there is no direct benefit to the SDB
