Small Business Size Standards; Size Standards by 2002 North American Industry Classification System

AGENCY:

Small Business Administration (SBA).

ACTION:

Proposed rule; correction.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is correcting the proposed rule it published in the Federal Register on August 13, 2002, that would amend its Small Business Size Regulations by incorporating the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) 2002 modifications of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) into its table of small business size standards. The proposed rule published on August 13, 2002, contained a number of formatting errors that could make it difficult for some readers to distinguish between size standards defined in millions of dollars and those defined in number of employees. This correction contains a new table of size standards to clearly identify size standards by millions of dollars and by number of employees.

DATES:

SBA must receive comments to the proposed rule on or before September 12, 2002.

ADDRESSES:

Address all comments concerning the proposed rule to Gary M. Jackson, Assistant Administrator for Size Standards, Office of Size Standards, 409 Third Street, SW, Washington, DC 20416; via email to sizestandards@sba.gov; or via facsimile, (202) 205-6390. SBA will make all public comments available to any person or concern upon request.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Carl Jordan, Office of Size Standards, at (202) 205-6618 or sizestandards@sba.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

SBA published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on August 13, 2002, (67 FR 52597) to amend its Small Business Size Regulations by incorporating the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) 2002 modifications of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) into its table of small business size standards. These modifications are limited to industries in six (6) NAICS Sectors. The modifications result in a small number of size standard changes to certain NAICS activities. The proposed rule published in the Federal Register on August 13, 2002, did not include dollar signs for many of the monetary-based size standards. This correction revises the size standards table by listing size standards by millions of dollars and number of employees in separate columns.

In rule FR Doc. 02-20358 published on August 13, 2002 (67 FR 52633) make the following correction.

On page 52638, in the third column, correct amendatory instruction number 3 as follows:

3. Amend § 121.201 by revising the table of size standards to read as follows:

Footnotes

1. NAICS codes 221111, 221112, 221113, 221119, 221121, and 221122—A firm is small if, including its affiliates, it is primarily engaged in the generation, transmission, and/or distribution of electric energy for sale and its total electric output for the preceding fiscal year did not exceed 4 million megawatt hours.

2. NAICS code 237990—Dredging: To be considered small for purposes of Government procurement, a firm must perform at least 40 percent of the volume dredged with its own equipment or equipment owned by another small dredging concern.

3. NAICS code 311421—For purposes of Government procurement for food canning and preserving, the standard of 500 employees excludes agricultural labor as defined in 3306(k) of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. 3306(k).

4. NAICS code 324110—For purposes of Government procurement, the firm may not have more than 1,500 employees nor more than 75,000 barrels per day capacity of petroleum-based inputs, including crude oil or bona fide feedstocks. Capacity includes owned or leased facilities as well as facilities under a processing agreement or an arrangement such as an exchange agreement or a throughput. The total product to be delivered under the contract must be at least 90 percent refined by the successful bidder from either crude oil or bona fide feedstocks.

5. NAICS code 326211—For Government procurement, a firm is small for bidding on a contract for pneumatic tires within Census Classification codes 30111 and 30112, provided that:

(a) The value of tires within Census Classification codes 30111 and 30112 which it manufactured in the United States during the previous calendar year is more than 50 percent of the value of its total worldwide manufacture,

(b) The value of pneumatic tires within Census Classification codes 30111 and 30112 comprising its total worldwide manufacture during the preceding calendar year was less than 5 percent of the value of all such tires manufactured in the United States during that period, and

(c) The value of the principal product which it manufactured or otherwise produced, or sold worldwide during the preceding calendar year is less than 10 percent of the total value of such products manufactured or otherwise produced or sold in the United States during that period.

6. NAICS Subsectors 333, 334, 335 and 336—For rebuilding machinery or equipment on a factory basis, or equivalent, use the NAICS code for a newly manufactured product. Concerns performing major rebuilding or overhaul activities do not necessarily have to meet the criteria for being a “manufacturer” although the activities may be classified under a manufacturing NAICS code. Ordinary repair services or preservation are not considered rebuilding.

7. NAICS code 336413—Contracts for the rebuilding or overhaul of aircraft ground support equipment on a contract basis are classified under NAICS code 336413.

8. NAICS Codes 522110, 522120, 522130, 522190, 522210 and 522293—A financial institution's assets are determined by averaging the assets reported on its four quarterly financial statements for the preceding year. “Assets” for the purposes of this size standard means the assets defined according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council 034 call report form.

9. NAICS code 531190—Leasing of building space to the Federal Government by Owners: For Government procurement, a size standard of $17.5 million in gross receipts applies to the owners of building space leased to the Federal Government. The standard does not apply to an agent.

10. NAICS codes 488510 (part), 531210, 541810, 561510 and 561920—As measured by total revenues, but excluding funds received in trust for an unaffiliated third party, such as bookings or sales subject to commissions. The commissions received are included as revenue.

11. NAICS code 541710—For research and development contracts requiring the delivery of a manufactured product, the appropriate size standard is that of the manufacturing industry.

(a) “Research and Development” means laboratory or other physical research and development. It does not include economic, educational, engineering, operations, systems, or other nonphysical research; or computer programming, data processing, commercial and/or medical laboratory testing.

(b) For purposes of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program only, a different definition has been established by law. See § 121.701 of these regulations.

(c) “Research and Development” for guided missiles and space vehicles includes evaluations and simulation, and other services requiring thorough knowledge of complete missiles and spacecraft.

12. NAICS code 561210—Facilities Management, a component of NAICS 561210, includes establishments, not classified elsewhere, which provide overall management and personnel to perform a variety of related support services in operating a complete facility in or around a specific building, or within another business or Government establishment. Facilities management means furnishing three or more personnel supply services which may include, but are not limited to secretarial services, typists, word processing, maintaining files and/or libraries, telephone answering, switchboard operation, reproduction or mimeograph service, mailing service, writers, bookkeeping, financial or business management, public relations, conference planning, minor office equipment maintenance and repair, use of information systems (not programming), word processing, travel arrangements, maintaining files and/or libraries.

13. NAICS code 238990 (All Other Special Trade Contractors) and NAICS code 561210 (Facilities Support Services)—Base Maintenance:

(a) If one of the activities of base maintenance, as defined in paragraph (b) (below in this endnote) can be identified with a separate industry and that activity (or industry) accounts for 50 percent or more of the value of an entire contract, then the proper size standard is that of the particular industry, and not the base maintenance size standard.

(b) “Base Maintenance” requires the performance of three or more separate activities in the areas of service or special trade construction industries. If services are performed, these activities must each be in a separate NAICS code including, but not limited to, Janitorial and Custodial Service, Fire Prevention Service, Messenger Service, Commissary Service, Protective Guard Service, and Grounds Maintenance and Landscaping Service. If the contract requires the use of special trade contractors (plumbing, painting, plastering, carpentry, etc.), all such special trade construction activities are considered a single activity and classified as Base Housing Maintenance. Since Base Housing Maintenance is only one activity, two additional activities are required for a contract to be classified as “Base Maintenance.”

14. NAICS 562910—Environmental Remediation Services:

(a) For SBA assistance as a small business concern in the industry of Environmental Remediation Services, other than for Government procurement, a concern must be engaged primarily in furnishing a range of services for the remediation of a contaminated environment to an acceptable condition including, but not limited to, preliminary assessment, site inspection, testing, remedial investigation, feasibility studies, remedial design, containment, remedial action, removal of contaminated materials, storage of contaminated materials and security and site closeouts. If one of such activities accounts for 50 percent or more of a concern's total revenues, employees, or other related factors, the concern's primary industry is that of the particular industry and not the Environmental Remediation Services Industry.

(b) For purposes of classifying a Government procurement as Environmental Remediation Services, the general purpose of the procurement must be to restore a contaminated environment and also the procurement must be composed of activities in three or more separate industries with separate NAICS codes or, in some instances (e.g., engineering), smaller sub-components of NAICS codes with separate, distinct size standards. These activities may include, but are not limited to, separate activities in industries such as: Heavy Construction; Special Trade Construction; Engineering Services; Architectural Services; Management Services; Refuse Systems; Sanitary Services, Not Elsewhere Classified; Local Trucking Without Storage; Testing Laboratories; and Commercial, Physical and Biological Research. If any activity in the procurement can be identified with a separate NAICS code, or component of a code with a separate distinct size standard, and that industry accounts for 50 percent or more of the value of the entire procurement, then the proper size standard is the one for that particular industry, and not the Environmental Remediation Service size standard.

15. Subsector 483—Water Transportation—Offshore Marine Services: The applicable size standard shall be $23.5 million for firms furnishing specific transportation services to concerns engaged in offshore oil and/or natural gas exploration, drilling production, or marine research; such services encompass passenger and freight transportation, anchor handling, and related logistical services to and from the work site or at sea.