Affiliation and Teaming for Small Federal Contractors After the 2026 Size-Standards Overhaul

The SBA’s August 2026 proposed rule overhauls small business size standards through NAICS consolidation and revenue-to-employee measure conversions, layered on top of the January 2025 negative control revision, the MAC recertification rule, and the Decision Point size-determination timing decision. Affiliation analysis under 13 C.F.R. § 121.103 no longer runs on last year’s assumptions.

The stakes are structural. Certify under the wrong measure, and a size protest follows. Leave a pre-2025 veto right in an operating agreement, and negative control surfaces. Let a subcontractor carry the primary and vital work, and the ostensible subcontractor rule under § 121.103(h)(3) turns the team into one large affiliate. Draft a JV agreement without demonstrable managing venturer control under § 125.8(b), and neither SBA OHA nor the COFC will rescue it.

This two-session program converts the rules and the 2025 OHA decisions into practitioner work product. Attendees leave with a concrete checklist for auditing client representations, operating agreements, and M&A structures against both current and proposed standards and drafting guidance for teaming and JV agreements that affirmatively demonstrate managing venturer control and withstand SBA OHA and COFC scrutiny.