By John Shoraka | Chairman
Inside each major federal agency, the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU), or its equivalent, often called OSBP, holds the statutory seat at the table where acquisition strategies are shaped.
These offices exist to fight for small and disadvantaged businesses that otherwise lack the access, relationships, or resources to influence how requirements are defined, whether acquisitions are bundled or unbundled, and whether the Rule of Two is properly applied to create set-aside opportunities.
Without a strong, independent OSDBU presence, small businesses are left on the outside looking in while contracting officers and program offices make decisions that determine who can even compete.
Agency-Level Reductions
Across multiple agencies, these offices have faced deep staffing cuts, organizational downgrades, and structural changes that reduce their independence and capacity. At the same time, the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul has stripped or relocated key regulatory language that once embedded their roles. The combined effect narrows the pathways small businesses rely on.
U.S. Air Force
A September 4, 2025 memo, from Secretary Troy Meink, directed the Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization to shrink to a single person by month’s end, down from roughly 20 staff and contractors. Functions were shifted into the acquisition organization. Critics noted the loss of independent escalation channels and warned it turns the advocate into an appendage of the very office it is meant to influence.
HHS
In April 2025, a DOGE-driven reorganization gutted the OSDBU. Nearly all staff were removed; only the Executive Director remained.
With tens of billions in annual contracting, the department was left with essentially one person to handle advocacy, market research, bundling reviews, and outreach across headquarters and major components.
Department of Energy
The November 2025 organizational realignment eliminated or significantly downgraded the former OSDBU. It was restructured as the Office of Small Business Programs and realigned under the Office of Management, which was lower in the hierarchy and without the previous direct senior-level visibility.
Department of Veterans Affairs
Small Business Liaisons and specialists in field offices and contracting activities are designated in coordination with the central OSDBU Director, yet in practice often report primarily to local acquisition leadership.
This creates an inherent conflict: the specialists charged with advocating for set-asides and fair opportunity are supervised by the same organizations that may prioritize speed, bundling, or large vehicles.
The statutory model envisions stronger independent advocacy through the OSDBU chain; VA’s embedded structure weakens it.
The FAR Overhaul Removes Key References
On September 26, 2025, the FAR Council released major revisions to Part 19 (retitled simply “Small Business”) as part of the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul.
Provisions describing the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, requirements to consult small business specialists, and detailed coordination with SBA Procurement Center Representatives (PCRs) were streamlined, moved to the non-binding FAR Companion Guide as “best practices,” or deleted as redundant or outdated.
Proposed changes to Part 10 (Market Research) remove nearly all small business language, including instructions to consult specialists or PCRs when considering bundling or consolidation and to notify small business incumbents.
The result is a regulatory framework with fewer explicit hooks requiring agencies to engage these advocates or consider small business impacts at key decision points.
When combined with the staffing and organizational cuts described above, the formal mechanisms that once gave OSDBUs and PCRs real leverage inside the acquisition process have been materially weakened from both the operational and regulatory sides.
The Pattern and the Effect
These are not isolated administrative tweaks. They systematically reduce the number of dedicated, independent voices inside agencies whose job is to champion small business participation.
Outreach declines. Reviews of acquisition strategies for set-aside opportunities become thinner. The ability to push back on bundling or to ensure small firms get timely notice and access erodes. Larger, established contractors, already advantaged by scale, past performance, and relationships, face fewer internal counterweights.
The federal marketplace remains the largest buyer in the world.
When the internal advocates and the regulatory language that supported their role are both diminished, the practical result is a narrower on-ramp for the very firms and communities that have used federal contracting to build scale, wealth, and influence.
What This Means for Contractors
At Gov Contract Pros we help clients adapt to this environment by focusing on compliance, diversification, vehicle positioning, and direct engagement strategies where agency capacity has been thinned. The infrastructure that once provided structured support inside government has been deliberately reduced.
The consequences for small business access are already visible in real time.
John Shoraka is Chairman of Gov Contract Pros, LLC and former Associate Administrator for Government Contracting and Business Development at the U.S. Small Business Administration. Views are his own.
