Office of Small & Disadvantaged Business Utilization

Memorandum

December 3, 2021

From: Deputy Secretary (001)

Subj: Non-Retaliation Statement for Small Entities Seeking Assistance from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of the National Ombudsman (ONO) (VIEWS 6258641)

To: Under Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, Head of Contracting Activities and Other Key Officials

1. The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) requires agencies to take steps to collect input from small entities on regulations and to determine whether a rule is expected to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. The SBA’s ONO was created to assist small businesses when they experience excessive or unfair Federal regulatory enforcement actions, such as repetitive audits or investigations, excessive fines, penalties, threats, retaliation or other unfair enforcement action by a Federal agency.

2. This memorandum communicates the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) policy on non-retaliation and small entities’ rights under SBREFA, including the right to file a comment with SBA’s ONO. VA prohibits retaliatory actions by VA employees against any small business regarding SBA’s ONO assistance, or questions or complaints about VA regulatory enforcement actions, requirements or policies.

3. VA takes allegations of retaliation very seriously and will thoroughly investigate any allegation of retaliation, including referring all allegations of threats or retaliation against small businesses to the cognizant senior executive, the Inspector General or other responsible official, and take appropriate corrective action. The content of this notice will be made available to the public on the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) website.

4. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Sharon G. Ridley, Executive Director, OSDBU or Ms. Kimberly Osborne, Deputy Executive Director, OSDBU, at 202-461-4600 or osdbuexeccorr@va.gov.

/s/ Donald M. Remy