In part at the urging of Commonwealth Architects in Richmond, the national AIA Government Advocacy team has been working with the Small Business Administration (SBA) to revise its definition of an architecture small business. 

The agency’s latest proposal will move the definition to $19 million annual gross receipts from the current $4.5 million.  As of 2009, a majority of firms qualified for SBA business status based on their billings.  Should this change go through, 97.7 percent of the firms responding to the 2009 AIA firm survey would fall within the architecture small business category.

At risk are the special set-asides included within federal contracts for firms within the small business category.  With the change, more firms will qualify for such set asides and more large contractors may qualify for contracts through the greater number of small business sub-contractors. 

More information can be found on the AIA website:  http://www.aia.org/advocacy/federal/AIAB088628?dvid=&recspec=AIAB088628.  Included are links to discussion groups on the topic and a request to send comments, stories and empirical data to be used by the AIA to strengthen its discussions with the agency and congressional leaders.