SBA Proposes Roll Back of Social Disadvantage Presumption in 8(a) Business Development Program

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has proposed a rule to formally remove the rebuttable presumption of social disadvantage for individual applicants in its 8(a) Business Development program. The proposed rule follows a series of policy changes and legal challenges, including a 2023 federal court ruling that deemed the race-based presumption unconstitutional. Under the new guidelines, individual applicants will have to establish social disadvantage by demonstrating that government actions discriminated against their group and caused them material harm, which can be done through self-certification.