Congress removes local-preference rule from federal small-business contracting
S. 991 — A bill to amend the Small Business Act to eliminate certain requirements relating to the award of construction subcontracts within the county or State of performance. · Filed by Dan Sullivan (R-AK) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 12, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill repeals a Small Business Act requirement that construction subcontracts awarded under the 8(a) program must be performed within the same county or state. The effect is to allow 8(a) contractors to award subcontracts to firms located anywhere in the country, removing a geographic restriction on where work can be performed.
Why we flagged it
The bill removes a geographic constraint on federal small-business contracting, allowing national competition for subcontracts instead of local preference. This is a straightforward deregulatory measure that expands the scope of where 8(a) work can be performed.
What the text implies
- Repealing the local-performance requirement may concentrate subcontracting work in regions with established contractor networks and lower labor costs, potentially disadvantaging rural and economically distressed areas that benefited from the geographic preference.
- The change may reduce the economic multiplier effect of federal contracting in smaller communities, as dollars previously required to stay local can now flow to distant subcontractors.
- Prime 8(a) contractors may face pressure to minimize costs by selecting the lowest-bid subcontractor nationally, which could undercut local small businesses that previously had a protected market.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Removing geographic restrictions may reduce costs for prime contractors and increase competition nationally, potentially benefiting consumers through lower contract prices. However, it eliminates a local-preference rule that was designed to keep federal contracting dollars and job opportunities within the region where work is performed, which may harm small businesses and workers in rural or economically disadvantaged areas that relied on that local protection.
Who stands to gain
- 8(a) prime contractors (increased flexibility to reduce costs)
- Subcontractors in low-cost regions (expanded market access)
Named in the bill
Small Business Administration, 8(a) Business Development Program, Small Business Act Section 8(a)(11)
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Mar 12, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 12, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $215,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Dan Sullivan, the sponsor, reported $2,224,700 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Native American Contractors Association — $215,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 21, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (965 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 21, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress removes local-preference rule from federal small-business contracting” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s991 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.