The Small Business Administration just announced a new regulation that will require small businesses with federal contracts to be recertified as small-businesses every five years, or whenever they're acquired or merged with another company. A business determined to no longer be "small," as classified by the SBA's size standards, will be able to continue its federal contract under the same terms, but the government can no longer count it toward its small-business award goals. Congress decided a few years ago that the government should aim to have 23% of all prime-dollar federal contracts go to small businesses. The new regulation takes effect June 30, 2007. The move comes after years of small businesses complaining that the government was awarding large businesses and corporations contract dollars that it claimed were earmarked for small businesses. A 2003 Government Accountability Office report found that five large companies received $460 million in small business awards, primarily because the government let a business be classified as a small business over the life of the contracts -- which can last up to 20 years. Other reports, including those by the SBA's own Office of Advocacy, came to similar conclusions. Some critics of the new regulation, such as the American Small Business League, say the new rule doesn't go far enough to solve the problem and that businesses with contracts should be re-certified every year -- not just every five years. SBA's Karen Hontz said in a recent interview that the agency decided to make it every five years because, "We got a lot of comments from small business that it would be very burdensome" to recertify them every year.