The Office of Management and Budget's Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC) published a Federal Register notice on July 13, 2026, requesting public comment on proposed 2027 revisions to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) — the code structure the Small Business Administration uses to set size standards and determine which firms qualify for federal set-aside contracts.
Background
NAICS is the six-digit classification system that federal agencies assign to every solicitation and contract to describe the industry involved. SBA then attaches a size standard — measured in either employee count or average annual receipts — to each NAICS code, and that size standard determines whether a company qualifies as "small" for purposes of small-business set-asides, 8(a), HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned, and women-owned small-business programs. A firm's primary NAICS code also shapes which competitive pool it is measured against and which past-performance and capability statements it needs to build.
NAICS itself is reviewed on a five-year cycle by the ECPC, jointly with Statistics Canada and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), since the code system is maintained jointly by the three North American countries for economic statistics comparability. The current proposal traces back to a December 20, 2024, Federal Register notice that solicited proposals for the 2027 revision; the ECPC received 60 uniquely numbered submissions in response, which it reviewed and used to develop the recommendations now out for comment. The July 13 notice is the formal follow-up: a Statistical Policy Directive No. 8 request for comment on the specific code changes ECPC now recommends carrying into the 2027 edition.
The comment period runs 30 days from publication, closing on approximately August 12, 2026. Comments go through Regulations.gov. If adopted, the revised code set would take effect for establishment data covering periods beginning on or after January 1, 2027. That timing means agencies would begin assigning the new codes to fiscal year 2027 solicitations, while SBA would need to complete its own separate size-standard rulemaking to map dollar and employee thresholds onto whatever consolidated or split codes ECPC finalizes.
Key Details
The proposed 2027 NAICS revisions include several consolidations and one split with direct relevance to government contractors:
- Computer equipment manufacturing: Three separate codes — 334111, 334112, and 334118 — would merge into a single code, 334110.
- Communications equipment manufacturing: Codes 334210, 334220, and 334290 would consolidate into 334230.
- Tire manufacturing: Tire manufacturing (326211) and tire retreading (326212) would merge into 326210.
- Media streaming: The current combined streaming category (516210) would split into two distinct codes — 516213 for media streaming distribution and broadcasting networks, and 516214 for social networks and collaborative media sites.
- Urban transit systems: Codes 485111 through 485119 would consolidate into a single code, 485110.
- Airport operations: The code would be renamed to explicitly include spaceport operations, with the notice describing the change as clarifying where to classify commercial spaceports.
Notably, the Federal Register notice states that NAICS "is designed and maintained solely for statistical purposes" and that requirements tied to nonstatistical uses such as administrative, regulatory, or taxation applications "play no role" in its development or revision. That disclaimer sits uneasily next to the system's actual role in federal contracting: SBA size standards and every contract's NAICS assignment are built directly on top of these codes, even though the code-writing body says regulatory consequences are not part of its design process.
What It Means for Contractors
Any time NAICS codes merge or split, the population of firms competing under a given code changes — and so does who counts as "small" within it. When multiple codes collapse into one, as proposed for computer equipment, communications equipment, and tire manufacturing, companies that previously competed in a narrower pool under one legacy code will be measured against a broader set of competitors, some of which may have been larger incumbents under an adjacent, now-merged code. SBA size standards are set per NAICS code, so a merger can effectively change which receipts or employee-count threshold applies to a contractor's line of business, even if the contractor's own operations haven't changed at all.
The media-streaming split cuts the other direction: a single category breaking into two distinct codes (streaming/broadcasting vs. social/collaborative platforms) could separate previously pooled competitors into narrower, more specific groups, which may better match a contractor's actual capability profile — or may push a firm into a size standard it hasn't previously had to meet.
The airport-to-spaceport renaming signals that commercial launch and spaceport support work will be more clearly captured under an existing NAICS code rather than left to a contracting officer's judgment call about which code best fits a solicitation. That matters for firms bidding on spaceport construction, ground support, or range operations contracts, since NAICS assignment at the solicitation level drives which businesses are eligible to bid as small.
Because SBA has not yet issued its own size-standard revisions tied to this NAICS update, contractors currently holding a primary NAICS code slated for consolidation or split should not assume their existing size standard carries over automatically once the 2027 codes take effect. The practical step available now is participating in the comment period: firms whose primary or secondary NAICS codes appear in the proposed changes have until roughly August 12, 2026, to submit comments through Regulations.gov explaining how a merger or split would affect their competitive position, before the ECPC finalizes the 2027 structure that SBA will subsequently need to map size standards onto.
Contracting officers assigning codes to new solicitations after January 1, 2027, will also need to work from the revised structure, so firms tracking upcoming opportunities in the affected industries — computer and communications equipment manufacturing, tire manufacturing, streaming media services, urban transit, and airport/spaceport operations — should watch for how procurement offices interpret the new codes once they take effect.
Firms that hold multiple NAICS registrations in the System for Award Management should also check whether any secondary or tertiary codes on their profile are among those slated for consolidation. A registration built around a code that disappears in the 2027 revision will need updating to the surviving code to remain accurately represented in SAM.gov searches that contracting officers use to identify small-business sources. Waiting until the January 2027 effective date to make that update risks a visibility gap during the transition, particularly for firms relying on NAICS-based market research tools to find set-aside opportunities.
