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Clauses · FAR · Small business, labor and socioeconomic

FAR 52.219-8 Utilization of Small Business Concerns

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

OpenThe base leaves it open

FAR 52.219-9 is in the contract above. The assurance at 52.219-9(d)(9) is what carries this clause into subcontracts that offer further subcontracting opportunities, and a firm that holds no subcontracting plan is not the firm that gave that assurance. FAR 19.702(b)(1) exempts a small business from the plan.

A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-09 · edition Jan 2025 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

One item for your checklist.

  1. Nothing to send, ever

    There is no paperwork here. It is a rule you follow while you perform the work.

    • Carrying the policy into the subcontracts you award yourself — the maximum practicable opportunity for small, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, HUBZone, small disadvantaged and women-owned small business concerns

      FAR 52.219-8(d)

When it is used

Contracts > SAT ($350k) with subcontracting opportunities.

Read closely

The clause ends at paragraph (e), and its limits are the useful part. Paragraph (b) is a statement of United States policy rather than a duty on you, paragraph (d) is where you agree to carry that policy out in awarding subcontracts and to cooperate in any study of compliance, and paragraph (e) lets you accept a lower-tier firm's written representation of its size and socioeconomic status on the conditions stated there. Nowhere does the clause instruct anyone to insert it in a subcontract, and it states no dollar threshold and nothing about lower tiers. The cascade often attributed to this number lives in FAR 52.219-9(d)(9), and the obligation there is a different one: a subcontractor that is other than small, receiving a subcontract above the FAR 19.702(a) threshold with further subcontracting possibilities, adopts a subcontracting plan complying with the requirements of that clause — not this one passed down.

The 19 templates that name it, with the line
76CORPDOC 2A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Commercial Products/Services under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 92143CORPDOC 3A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Fixed Price Non-Commercial Items under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 159155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 178233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 56551Raytheon TC-001 — General Terms and Conditions of PurchaseRTXline 453105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 45166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-001 — U.S. Government Firm Fixed Price Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 224569Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-002 — U.S. Government FFP or T&M Order for Commercial Products and ServicesNorthrop Grummanline 2335166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-003 — U.S. Government T&M Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2187168Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-004 — U.S. Government Cost Reimbursement Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2277255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 950243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1875122GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-095 — FFP Purchase Orders for Commercial/COTS Products or Services in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 996240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1651106L3Harris LGL-50.F2 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1322273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 298107Honeywell — Supplemental Provisions Under Fixed Price U.S. Government Contracts for Commercial ItemsHoneywellline 13389AAR Government Services — C40 Purchase Order General Provisions, Non-Commercial Firm Fixed Price Items or ServicesAAR Corpline 2938178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 497

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.219-8; the insertion assurance at FAR 52.219-9(d)(9); FAR 19.702(a) and (b)(1) (verified 2026-08-09)

This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.