Small business proteges will now have to provide at least one example of their own past experience when teaming with a large mentor to make an offer for GSA’s POLARIS contract.  The change was included in the updated RFP issued June 30^th and was made in response to an earlier protest that the original language enabled all past performance to be provided by the large business partner. Now, such companies will be limited to providing three examples of their past performance.  The change may seem like the agency continues to favor large businesses on what is supposed to be a small business-set aside contract, but GSA is trying to balance the contract so that both experienced small businesses and less experienced, newer market entries can potentially participate on POLARIS.  This is consistent with Biden Administration initiatives to attract newer small companies to the federal arena.  GSA may be trying to thread the needle further by allowing companies with no relevant past experience to be part of non-mentor-protege POLARIS teams.  While such information must be disclosed, it is not necessarily the case such information will automatically disqualify a company.  GSA may instead look at the overall team submitting the offer.  As previously announced, there is no ceiling on POLARIS, a trend that may continue with future GWAC’s.  Removing the contract ceiling takes away a potential problem of having to seek a ceiling increase mid-contract if a vehicle turns out to be very popular, making the contract easier to manage.  The new offer submission deadline for the RFP’s now out for bid is August 10^th.  This time is provided to allow all offers under the disputed RFP’s to have a chance to revise their offers in accordance with the changes.