NAICS Is Being Rewritten for 2027, and Your Size Standard Rides on It: Comments Close August 12

OMB published proposed NAICS 2027 updates on July 13, 2026, and the comment window closes August 12. The changes consolidate dozens of manufacturing codes, retitle airport operations to include spaceports, and leave professional services codes untouched. For small contractors, the code you sit in determines your size standard, so a merged code can quietly change whether you still count as small.

Category: GovCon News · 9 min read · Published 2026-08-03

Most small government contractors treat their NAICS code as a piece of paperwork they filled out once during SAM.gov registration and have not thought about since. That is a mistake, because the six-digit code attached to a solicitation is the single most consequential number in federal contracting for a small business. It determines the size standard you are measured against, whether you qualify for a set-aside, which competitors you face, and in many cases whether the opportunity is even visible to you in a keyword search. On July 13, 2026, the Office of Management and Budget published a proposed rewrite of that code system, and the comment window closes August 12, 2026.

The notice, issued under Statistical Policy Directive No. 8, asks for public comment on the North American Industry Classification System updates for 2027 recommended by the Economic Classification Policy Committee. Comments go to regulations.gov under docket number USBC-2026-0133. This is not a proposed rule in the usual sense, and it will not appear on most contractors' regulatory radar, which is exactly why it is worth ten minutes of your attention this week.

What the Economic Classification Policy Committee Actually Recommended

The Economic Classification Policy Committee is made up of representatives from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and other federal agencies, and it coordinates with the statistical agencies of Canada and Mexico so that the three countries' industry classifications stay aligned. The committee opened the process with a December 20, 2024 Federal Register notice asking the public what should change, received 60 individual submissions, and has now published what it decided to keep.

The theme of the 2027 recommendations is consolidation, not expansion. The committee explicitly limited the scope of changes because of the cost and data-series disruption that reclassification causes, and it declined most requests for brand new industries on the grounds that the resulting industry would have been too small in the United States or that the proposal did not meet the production-oriented criterion NAICS uses to define an industry.

Manufacturing consolidations. The bulk of the proposed changes collapse multiple six-digit manufacturing codes into single broader ones. NAICS 334111 Electronic Computer Manufacturing, 334112 Computer Storage Device Manufacturing, and 334118 Computer Terminal and Other Computer Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing would merge into 334110 Computer and Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing. NAICS 334210 Telephone Apparatus Manufacturing, 334220 Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing, and 334290 Other Communications Equipment Manufacturing would merge into 334230 Communications Equipment Manufacturing. Four separate valve codes, 332911, 332912, 332913, and 332919, would collapse into 332910 Metal Valve Manufacturing. Iron and steel forging and nonferrous forging would merge into 332113 Iron, Steel, and Nonferrous Forging. Concrete block, brick, and pipe manufacturing would merge into 327330. Four office furniture and millwork codes would merge into 337210 Office Furniture (including Fixtures) Manufacturing.

The ordnance consolidation. For defense industrial base suppliers, the most notable change is the merger of NAICS 332992 Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturing, 332993 Ammunition (except Small Arms) Manufacturing, and 332994 Small Arms, Ordnance, and Ordnance Accessories Manufacturing into a single code, 332995 Small Arms, Ammunition, Ordnance, and Ordnance Accessories Manufacturing. That code number has history: it appeared in the original 1997 NAICS as Other Ordnance and Accessories Manufacturing, was discontinued in the 2012 revision, and would be reintroduced in 2027 with a broader definition.

Title and content changes. NAICS 48811 Airport Operations would be retitled Airport and Spaceport Operations, and 488119 Other Airport Operations would become Other Airport and Spaceport Operations, with definitional language added to clarify where commercial spaceports belong. Electric motors for electric vehicles would move out of 335312 Motor and Generator Manufacturing into 336310, which would itself be retitled from Motor Vehicle Gasoline Engine and Engine Parts Manufacturing to Motor Vehicle Engine and Engine Parts Manufacturing. Biogas manufacturing would move from 325120 Industrial Gas Manufacturing into 325199 All Other Basic Organic Chemical Manufacturing.

Training and media. NAICS 611410 Business and Secretarial Schools and 611430 Professional and Management Development Training would merge into 611440 Professional and Management Development Training (Including Business and Secretarial Schools), which matters for any firm holding training or workforce development contracts. In the opposite direction, NAICS 516210 would split into 516213 Media Streaming Distribution Services and Broadcasting Networks and 516214 Social Networks and Collaborative Media Sites.

What did not change. The committee proposed no updates in the bioeconomy space, noting that Executive Order 14236, issued March 14, 2025, rescinded Executive Order 14081, which had established the interagency working group that developed bioeconomy classification recommendations. More importantly for the typical small federal contractor, the committee recommended no changes to Sector 54, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services. If you compete under 541330 Engineering Services, 541511 Custom Computer Programming Services, 541519 Other Computer Related Services, or 541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services, your code survives 2027 intact.

Why a Statistical Classification Notice Is a Size Standard Story

NAICS exists to organize economic statistics, but federal procurement borrowed it wholesale. SBA maintains a table at 13 CFR 121.201 that assigns a receipts-based or employee-based size standard to every single NAICS code, and contracting officers assign a NAICS code to every solicitation, which in turn sets the size standard a bidder must meet to certify as small.

That linkage is what turns a statistical housekeeping notice into a business risk. When OMB merges three codes into one, SBA has to decide what size standard the surviving code carries. If your current code has a 750 employee standard and it merges into a code that SBA sets at 500 employees, firms sitting between those numbers stop being small in that industry on the day the change takes effect. The reverse is equally possible and equally consequential for your competitive set: a merger that lifts your threshold also lets larger competitors into set-asides you previously had to yourself.

The timing is staged. The proposed revision would take effect in the United States for publication of establishment data referring to periods beginning on or after January 1, 2027. SBA's adoption comes later, through its own rulemaking. When NAICS 2022 was adopted, SBA published a separate final rule in September 2022 and phased the corresponding size standards in across most of that year, with different sectors taking effect on different dates. Expect a similar sequence for 2027, which means the practical procurement impact lands sometime in 2027 or 2028, not the moment OMB finalizes.

Keep this separate from the other size standard track already in motion. SBA's proposed rule published August 22, 2025 would raise receipts-based size standards for over 250 industries to reflect inflation. Comments on that rule closed October 21, 2025 and a final rule has not yet been issued. That rule changes the dollar thresholds. The NAICS 2027 update changes which industries exist at all. Both can move your eligibility, and they move it independently.

What to Do Right Now

Pull the list of NAICS codes on your SAM.gov registration and your capability statement, and check each one against the two crosswalk tables in the OMB notice. The tables are also posted on the Census Bureau NAICS page. If none of your codes appear, you have nothing to do this cycle and you can stop here.

If one of your codes does appear in the crosswalk, look up the current size standard for every code being merged into the survivor. Where those standards differ, write down which direction the change would push you. That is the number you need for the comment, and for your own planning regardless of whether you comment.

If a merger would push your firm from small to other than small in an industry where you actively bid, file a comment before August 12, 2026 at regulations.gov under docket USBC-2026-0133. Comments on classification notices are read, and the record showed the committee accepted, modified, and rejected specific public proposals with stated reasons. A short comment that names your code, states the size standard consequence, and quantifies how many awards it would affect carries more weight than a long general objection.

If you are a defense manufacturer in the ammunition or ordnance space, or a training provider under 611410 or 611430, treat this as a scheduled event rather than a hypothetical. Your code is being consolidated in the current proposal, and you should be planning now for a size standard determination you will not control.

Finally, calendar the follow-on rulemaking. OMB publishing a final NAICS 2027 notice is the trigger for an SBA proposed rule adopting the new structure into 13 CFR 121.201. That SBA rule is where the size standards for the merged codes actually get set, and it will have its own comment period.

How ProposalApp Helps

NAICS codes are one of the few pieces of company data that quietly control everything downstream: which opportunities surface in your feed, which set-asides you can pursue, and whether your certification holds up under a size protest. When you set up your company profile in ProposalApp, your NAICS codes drive opportunity matching, so keeping them accurate is not a compliance chore but the input that determines whether the right solicitations reach you at all. If a 2027 consolidation changes the code your work falls under, updating it in ProposalApp updates your matching at the same time.

ProposalApp's opportunity search lets you run searches across multiple NAICS codes at once, which is the fastest way to see what your actual bidding footprint looks like before a merger changes it. Pull the awards and open solicitations under each code that appears in the crosswalk, and you have the volume figures a useful public comment needs. ProposalApp's bid and no-bid analysis also flags size standard and set-aside eligibility against your profile as you evaluate each opportunity, so if your status shifts in a given industry, you find out at the go or no-go decision rather than after a size protest.

Sources

- [Federal Register: Statistical Policy Directive No. 8: North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), Request for Comments on Proposed Updates for 2027](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/13/2026-14086/statistical-policy-directive-no-8-north-american-industry-classification-system-naics-request-for)
- [Regulations.gov docket USBC-2026-0133](https://www.regulations.gov/document/USBC-2026-0133-0001)
- [U.S. Census Bureau: North American Industry Classification System](https://www.census.gov/naics/)
- [eCFR: 13 CFR 121.201, What size standards has SBA identified by NAICS codes?](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-13/chapter-I/part-121/subpart-A/subject-group-ECFRf12a11421b08a31/section-121.201)
- [Federal Register: Small Business Size Standards, Adoption of 2022 North American Industry Classification System for Size Standards](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/09/29/2022-20513/small-business-size-standards-adoption-of-2022-north-american-industry-classification-system-for)
- [Federal Register: Small Business Size Standards, Monetary-Based Industry Size Standards](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/22/2025-16142/small-business-size-standards-monetary-based-industry-size-standards)
- [PilieroMazza Weekly Update for Government Contractors, July 23, 2026](https://www.pilieromazza.com/weekly-update-for-government-contractors-and-commercial-businesses-july-23-2026/)