SBA proposes to increase employee based size standards for industries in NAICS Sector 42, Wholesale Trade, and NAICS Sector 44 45, Retail Trade -- proposes no change to nonmanufacturer rule

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued a proposed rule to do the following:

• Increase employee based size standards for 46 industries in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sector 42, Wholesale Trade
• Increase the employee based size standard for one industry in NAICS Sector 44-45, Retail Trade
• Retain the current size standards in the remaining industries in those sectors
• Retain the current 500-employee size standard for Federal procurement of supplies under the nonmanufacturer rule (13 CFR 121.406).

SBA reviewed all 71 industries in NAICS Sector 42 and two industries in NAICS Sector 44-45 that have employee based size standards as part of its ongoing comprehensive size standards review. These revisions primarily affect eligibility for SBA's financial assistance programs.

If the proposed rule is adopted in its present form, nearly 4,000 more firms in Sectors 42 and 44 45 will become small for financial assistance under the revised employee based size standards.

You may read/download SBA's proposed rule at Regulations.gov (www.regulations.gov/#home) (search on "RIN 3245 AG49" [without quotes]). SBA must receive comments to this proposed rule on or before July 18, 2014. You may submit comments identified by RIN 3245-AG49 by one of the following methods: (1) Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov, following the instructions for submitting comments; or (2) Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Khem R. Sharma, Ph.D., Chief, Office of Size Standards, 409 Third Street SW., Mail Code 6530, Washington, DC 20416. SBA will not accept comments to this proposed rule submitted by email except for confidential information.