VA SUBCON Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The VA SUBCON Act requires the Department of Veterans Affairs, through its Director of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, to establish and maintain a database of small businesses certified by the Small Business Administration as owned and controlled by veterans. The database must distinguish veteran-owned firms from firms owned by veterans with service-connected disabilities and support VA veteran-small-business contracting goals and review requirements.
The database excludes a firm participating in a mentor-protege program or joint venture. It also excludes a firm unless it has completed at least two prime contracts with a Satisfactory-or-better Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System rating. VA must make the database available at appropriate acquisition stages to other-than-small offerors preparing required subcontracting plans for VA contracts.
Within 180 days after the database is established, VA must report to the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees on access and use, veteran-owned firms selected as subcontractors, the service-disabled breakdown, and recommendations to increase utilization. VA must use existing personnel, systems, and funds; the bill authorizes no additional appropriation, office, program, or organizational entity. The section sunsets December 31, 2028.
Who Benefits and How
Experienced SBA-certified veteran-owned small businesses gain visibility to large VA offerors seeking subcontractors. Eligible service-disabled-veteran-owned firms receive a distinct searchable category. Large prime-contract offerors gain a vetted source for required subcontracting plans. VA contracting officers gain data to support veteran-small-business goals and oversight.
Who Bears the Burden and How
VA small-business utilization staff must create, maintain, expose, and report on the database using existing resources. VA acquisition-system administrators must integrate access without new appropriations. Veteran-owned firms in mentor-protege programs or joint ventures are excluded, as are newer firms without two satisfactory prime-contract evaluations, reducing their opportunity to be found through this tool. Large offerors must incorporate the database into subcontract planning when VA makes it available.
Key Provisions
- Establishes a VA database of SBA-certified veteran-owned small businesses.
- Distinguishes veteran-owned firms from service-disabled-veteran-owned firms.
- Excludes mentor-protege participants and joint ventures.
- Requires at least two satisfactory prime-contract performance evaluations.
- Provides database access to large VA offerors preparing subcontracting plans.
- Directs a congressional report within 180 days after establishment.
- Requires implementation with existing personnel, systems, and funds.
- Prohibits additional appropriations or a new program office.
- Terminates the database authority on December 31, 2028.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires VA to maintain a temporary database of experienced SBA-certified veteran-owned small businesses for use by large VA offerors preparing subcontracting plans, with eligibility exclusions, congressional reporting, and a December 31, 2028 sunset.
Key Policy Areas
Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, VA Procurement, Subcontracting, Small Business Certification, Contractor Performance
Primary Purpose
Requires VA to maintain a temporary database of experienced SBA-certified veteran-owned small businesses for use by large VA offerors preparing subcontracting plans, with eligibility exclusions, congressional reporting, and a December 31, 2028 sunset.
Policy Domains
Section 2 VA veteran-owned subcontractor database
Identified Gains
- Eligible veteran-owned small business contractors
- Eligible service-disabled-veteran-owned contractors
- Large businesses offering on VA contracts
- VA contracting officers
- VA veteran-business utilization programs
Identified Costs
- VA small-business utilization staff
- VA acquisition-system administrators
- Veteran-owned firms in mentor-protege programs
- Veteran-owned joint ventures
- New veteran-owned firms lacking two prime contracts
- Large-offeror subcontracting-plan staff
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Introduced in House
Ms. King-Hinds introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Eligible service-disabled-veteran-owned contractors, Eligible veteran-owned small business contractors, Large businesses offering on VA contracts
Positive-direction: Eligible service-disabled-veteran-owned contractors, Eligible veteran-owned small business contractors, Large businesses offering on VA contracts
Negative-direction: New veteran-owned firms lacking two prime contracts, Veteran-owned firms in mentor-protege programs, Veteran-owned joint ventures
VA acquisition-system administrators, VA contracting officers, VA small-business utilization staff
Positive-direction: VA contracting officers
Negative-direction: VA acquisition-system administrators, VA small-business utilization staff
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "director"
- → VA Director of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization
- "eligible_firm"
- → SBA-certified veteran-owned firm meeting performance and participation restrictions
- "large_offeror"
- → Other-than-small business offering on a VA contract and preparing a subcontracting plan
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
An other-than-small VA offeror using the database at an appropriate acquisition stage to formulate a required subcontracting plan.
Termination of the section on December 31, 2028.
A mentor-protege or joint-venture participant, or a firm lacking two prime contracts rated Satisfactory or better in CPARS.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology