Housed Passed 2013 NDAA

Last week the House passed the final version of the Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorizes nearly $527.5 billion for the Department of Defense, $88.5 billion for overseas contingency operations, and $17.4 billion for the national security activities of the Department of Energy, and includes a number of provisions that will help encourage growth in our economy, and provide enhanced opportunities for small businesses.

Language intended to improve the opportunity and capability of U.S. small businesses to compete for Defense contacts includes:

• Provisions that improve the transparency and enforcement of subcontracting opportunities for small businesses.
• Provisions making it more difficult for businesses to fraudulently pass through contracts meant for small businesses to large businesses.
• Increases to the size of bonds the Small Business Administration can guarantee at no cost to taxpayers.
• Removal of the dollar caps on set aside contracts for women owned small businesses.
• Requirements that small business advocates be part of federal procurement and acquisition planning processes, and requirements that acquisition plans address how small businesses will be utilized.

The bill also authorizes $200 million for the Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF), a competitive, merit based program aimed at accelerating the transition of technologies developed by phase II Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) projects, defense laboratories, and other innovative technologies into defense acquisition programs. Information for funding on RIF programs in FY2013 will be posted to the Defense Innovation Marketplace.

For more information on the entire FY2013 NDAA conference report, click here.

Clean Tech Working with the Military

On December 7, the Washington Clean Tech Alliance (WCTA) Lunch featured an excellent sold out panel discussion with leaders from the military, cleantech business, and economic development organizations.

They discussed how cleantech companies could engage the Department of Defense for business expansion. Cleantech startups and established players learned about the opportunities in one of the world's largest energy markets: America's armed services. You can see the presentations made by the panelists by clicking below:

• Sean Murphy, Executive Director, Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition. See Sean's presentation here.
• John Plaza, President/CEO/Founder, Imperium Renewables. See John's presentation here.
• Paul T. Steucke, Jr., CIV USA IMCOM. See Paul's presentation here.
• Tim Vinopal, Chief Engineer, Environment, Health and Safety, Boeing: See Tim's presentation here. 

WCTA Board member Tim Stearns of the Washington State Department of Commerce moderated the event.  Andrews Wells at Nyhus Communications organized this event.