Mechanic's Lien Law Changes: Updated

Updating my earlier blog about pending HB 1265, those changes will not be adopted, at least this year. Sen. Purkey had made some "accommodation" changes to try and make it more palatable to the construction industry, such as limiting it to residential construction and changing the notice period to 30 days, but that was not enough to satisfy the State Senate, which passed on the bill for this year and referred it to the 2013 session of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee by a 15 to 0 vote. This now allows plenty of time for those with any interest in this draft bill to provide their input to their elected representatives. Even as changed it is not a good bill for contractors, in my opinion; so if you are involved in construction, and in particular residential construction, you should consider explaining your concerns and why they should vote no if it comes up for vote next year.

New FAR Rules Confirms No Priority Among Socio-Economic Programs

FAR Part 19.203 has been modified to confirm that there is no priority among socio-economic programs. This applies to the 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, and WOSB programs. This was adopted, in part, to contravene prior GAO decision that the HUBZone program "trumped" the other SE programs. The new regulation is effective as of April 2, 2012. Also addressed in this new rule as intended clarifications of the existing programs are the following:

• for acquisitions above the SAT, contracting officers shall consider a SDVOSB sole-source award before considering a general small business set aside, but a competitive SDVOSB set aside should be considered before a SDVOSB sole-source award;

• contracting officers may award a general small business set aside or use the SDVOSB program when the acquisition is below the SAT;

• for acquisitions above the SAT, the contracting officer shall consider an award under the 8(a) program before considering a general small business set aside;

• contracting officers may award a general small business set aside or use the 8(a) program when the award is below the SAT;

• the CO shall consider 8(a) set asides or sole-source awards before considering a general small business set aside;

• for acquisitions above the SAT, the contracting officer shall consider a HUBZone sole-source award before considering a general small business set aside, but a competitive HUBZone set aside should be considered before a HUBZone sole-source award; and

• contracting officers may award a general small business set aside or a competitive HUBZone set aside when the acquisition is below the SAT, but HUBZone sole-source awards are not permitted at or below the SAT.

Full text of the new rule is at the following link:

It is available at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-03-02/pdf/2012-4488.pdf.