Data / Federal rules / 2024-29393

HUBZone Program Updates and Clarifications, and Clarifications to Other Small Business Programs

The Small Business Administration published this final rule in the Federal Register on December 17, 2024. It took effect on January 16, 2025.

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What the agency says

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA or Agency) amends its regulations governing the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Program to clarify certain policies. In 2019, SBA published a comprehensive revision to the HUBZone Program regulations, which implemented changes intended to make the HUBZone Program more efficient and effective. This rule clarifies and improves policies surrounding some of those changes. In particular, the rule requires any certified HUBZone small business to be eligible as of the date of offer for any HUBZone contract. The rule also makes several changes to SBA's size and 8(a) Business Development (BD) regulations, as well as some technical changes to the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) programs. Of note, the rule deletes the program specific recertification requirements contained separately in SBA's size, 8(a) BD, HUBZone, WOSB, and VetCert and moves them to a new section that covers all size and status recertification requirements. This should ensure that the size and status requirements will be uniformly applied.

Key facts

Document number: 2024-29393
Type: Final rule
Action: Final rule
Agency: Small Business Administration
Published: December 17, 2024
Takes effect: January 16, 2025
Dates: This rule is effective on January 16, 2025.
Docket: Docket ID SBA-2024-0007
Regulation ID (RIN): 3245-AH68
Code of Federal Regulations: 13 CFR 121; 13 CFR 124; 13 CFR 125; 13 CFR 126; 13 CFR 127; 13 CFR 128; 13 CFR 134
Topics: Administrative practice and procedure; Claims; Confidential business information; Equal access to justice; Equal employment opportunity; Government contracts; Government procurement; Government property; Grant programs-business; Individuals with disabilities; Lawyers; Loan programs-business; Organization and functions (Government agencies); Penalties; Reporting and recordkeeping requirements; Small businesses; Technical assistance; Veterans
Significant: Yes, under Executive Order 12866
Pages: 63

The document on federalregister.gov PDF

Other documents from the Small Business Administration

Document	Type	Published
Removing Constitutional Concerns From SBA Programs 2026-19878	Final rule	Sep 29
Small Business Size Standards 2026-19546	Proposed rule	Sep 24
Rescinding Unnecessary Notice and Comment Procedures 2026-17731	Final rule	Aug 31
Small Business Size Standards 2026-17042	Proposed rule	Aug 20
Small Business Size Standards: Revised Size Standards Methodology 2026-17039	Proposed rule	Aug 20
Reforms to 13 CFR 124.103 To Remove SBA's 8(a) Program's Rebuttable Presumption of Social Disadvantage for Individually Owned Firms Only. Reforms Do Not Impact Entity-Owned Firms 2026-16370	Final rule	Aug 11
Reforms To Remove SBA's 8(a) Program's Rebuttable Presumption of Social Disadvantage for Individually Owned Firms Only; Reforms Do Not Impact Entity-Owned Firms 2026-11765	Proposed rule	Jun 11
Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance 2026-10817	Proposed rule	May 29

Everything from the Small Business Administration · Rules on administrative practice and procedure · Rules on claims · Rules on confidential business information · Published in December 2024

Read from the Federal Register API, last updated 2026-10-23. The document on federalregister.gov is the official record; dates and dockets can change through later corrections. Free to reuse with credit to SpecStream under CC BY 4.0.