WASHINGTON — The U.S. Small Business Administration is seeking public comment on a proposal that could expand access to SBA loans to more than 67,000 business.

The SBA is proposing to modify two of the methods it uses to determine which businesses qualify as a small business for government contracts and SBA’s loan and investment programs.

The proposed changes would modify the averaging period for calculating a small business’ number of employees, increasing it from 12 months to 24 months and applying the change to all of SBA’s programs.

The public is invited to submit comment on the proposed rule on or before Dec. 2.

The initiative would also change how average annual revenues may be calculated for SBA’s loan and investment programs.

“In addition, the proposed changes would also give small businesses participating in SBA’s loan programs and Small Business Investment Company Programs the option to choose between the new five-year averaging period or the existing three-year averaging period for the purposes of calculating average annual revenues,” said Jennifer S. Pilcher, SBA spokeswoman.

SBA estimates that, because of these proposed changes, about 67,650 additional businesses will gain access to SBA’s loan programs and about 450 additional businesses will gain access to SBA’s contracting programs.

The proposed changes are based on two recently passed federal legislative actions.

The first is the Jan. 1, passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which changed the averaging period for SBA’s employee-based size standards from 12 months to 24 months.

The second is the passage of the Small Business Runway Extension Act of 2018, which changed the requirements for proposed size standards prescribed by an agency without separate statutory authority to issue size standards. This law changed the averaging period for calculating annual revenue of services for businesses from three years to five years.

For more information about SBA’s Office of Size Standards and revisions to its small business size standards for industry sectors, visit here.

Submissions may be submitted at here or via FederalRegister.gov and identified by the following number: RIN 3245-AH26.

Comments will also be accepted by mail directed to Khem R. Sharma, Chief, Office of Size Standards, 409 3rd Street SW, Mail Code 6530, Washington, D.C. 20416.