Inflation Widens Eligibility For Agency Programs

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) increased its revenue-based size standards for small businesses by 15.8 percent to account for inflation since 1994, SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto announced recently. Since the size standards are used to determine whether a business is a small business for the purposes of eligibility for SBA programs, the inflation adjustments will make it possible for at least 8,600 companies to regain their eligibility as small businesses.

The new standards were published in the Federal Register on January 23, 2002, as an interim final rule with a 30-day comment period. They will become effective on February 22, 2002. For small businesses located in the September 11 presidentially declared disaster areas of metropolitan New York City and Northern Virginia, the new regulations will apply retroactively to Sept. 11, 2001.