New SBA Rule May Send Applicants Back to Square One

Government Contracts attorney Jeremy Burkhart was quoted in a Law360 article examining the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) new rule redefining eligibility for the agency's 8(a) Business Development Program. Effective September 10, 2026, the rule removes the program's former rebuttable presumption standard and requires applicants to establish that a university or corporation or federal, state or local government discriminated against a racial, ethnic or cultural group of which they are a member or favored a group of which they are not a member, and that said action resulted in material harm. Professionals interviewed by Law360 described how the revised framework may affect pending and future applications, particularly for companies that prepared submissions under the prior standard. Jeremy discussed the challenges facing applicants with pending submissions, commenting that some organizations will need to restructure their approach under the SBA's new social disadvantage requirements.

"Folks who submitted applications under the old standard need to take serious consideration into whether they want to basically withdraw those applications and then reapply," he said. "Because under the new rule, it's very likely that if somebody was putting together a narrative under the old framework, that it wouldn't qualify for social disadvantage under the new rule."

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