Stay two steps ahead with your small business. Subscribe to receive NSBA’s Real-Time Regulatory Updates. Register here!
Regulatory Rundown | Oct. 7 - Oct. 21
SBA exhausts disaster loan funds. On Oct. 15, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced it has exhausted funds for the agency’s disaster loan program following increased demand from Hurricane Helene. While SBA is pausing new loan offers for its direct, low-interest, long-term loans to disaster survivors until Congress appropriates additional funds, the agency is encouraging individuals and small businesses to continue to apply for loans given assurances from Congress that additional funding will be provided upon its November return.
SBA’s disaster assistance information is available here.
____
DOL releases AI Best Practices. On Oct. 16, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its Artificial Intelligence Best Practices, which “provide developers and employers with a detailed roadmap to implement the agency’s AI and Worker Well-being: Principles for Developers and Employers.” The Best Practices outline approaches including ethical development of AI standards, “ensuring meaningful human oversight for significant employment decisions”, and being transparent with workers about AI use.
____
DOL to offer online seminars on prevailing wage requirements. On Oct. 15, DOL announced that it will offer online seminars through its Wage and Hour Division on prevailing wage requirements in fiscal year 2025 for federally funded construction and service contracts. The first scheduled seminars will be held on Nov. 13-14.
More information on the seminars is available here.
____
DoD publishes final rule for CMMC Program. On Oct. 11, the Department of Defense (DoD) released the final program rule for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program on federalregister.gov. The rule, which was published in the Federal Register on Oct. 15, “streamlines and simplifies the process for small- and medium-sized businesses by reducing the number of assessment levels from the five in the original program to three under the new program.”
CMMC is intended to verify defense contractor compliance with existing protections for federal contract information and controlled unclassified information.
To follow-up on the rule, DoD will publish its Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) rule change to contractually implement the program, which will be published in early to mid-2025.
NSBA submitted comments on the proposed DFARS rule change, which are available here.
____
Treasury announces SBOP awardees. On Oct. 8, the Treasury Department announced the full list of Small Business Opportunity Program (SBOP) awardees. The 14 awardees will receive funding under the $75 million SBOP competitive grant program, which provides funding to connect “underserved and very small businesses to the financing necessary to participate” in key supply chains (e.g., electric vehicle manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturing, construction, etc.).
____
NLRB issues memo on non-competes. On Oct. 7, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo to all field offices reinforcing her position that “overbroad non-compete agreements are unlawful because they chill employees from exercising their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.” The memo lays out Abruzzo’s intent “to not only prosecute employers who require that their employees sign non-compete and “stay-or-pay” provisions, but to, as fully as possible, remedy the harmful monetary effects employees experience as a result of these provisions.”
Note that an August district court decision stopped the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from enforcing its Noncompete Rule, a comprehensive ban on new noncompetes with all workers, including senior executives.
____
