A wave of executive orders from the Trump administration is rapidly reshaping the landscape for federal contractors, with sweeping changes to U.S. foreign aid, diversity initiatives, and gender policy....more
4/7/2025
/ Contract Disputes ,
Contract Termination ,
Contract Terms ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Government Agencies ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Risk Management ,
Stop Work Orders ,
Trump Administration
On January 29, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded M-25-13, which it had issued two days earlier, and which required federal agencies to "temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or...more
Federal programs often require individuals employed by multiple corporations and by the federal government to work together. To ensure the project is successful, the prime contract and any related subcontract will often grant...more
Federal contracts famously include a clause permitting the government to terminate the agreement for the government's own "convenience"—even if the contractor did not default on its performance obligations. Aware of this...more
Congress is on the cusp of finalizing the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and sending it to the President for his signature. The compromise version of the bill recently released by the House Armed Services...more
On September 17, 2024, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the General Services Administration (GSA) released its Audit Plan for the 2025 fiscal year, which includes, among other activities, certain, and potentially...more
Under the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 (CICA), awarding a contract under the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) is a competitive procedure—so long as the MAS program is...more
Contractors frequently rely on “shared services” agreements or “interorganizational transfers” with their corporate parents, subsidiaries, and sister companies when performing work for the federal government. These...more
The U.S. Supreme Court's blockbuster decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overruled a 40-year-old case (Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.) that required courts to defer to agencies'...more
10/8/2024
/ Administrative Authority ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Corner Post Inc v Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Regulatory Authority ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Authority ,
Statutory Interpretation
A recent decision from the Court of Appeals of Virginia may have companies doublechecking the workshare terms in their subcontracts. The Court held that a subcontractor's 40 percent workshare only applied to the $70 million...more
On June 6, 2024, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) published a direct final rule eliminating self-certification for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB) when considering contracts for agency...more
When hackers gain access to a subcontractor’s information systems and divert the prime contractor’s payment to themselves instead of to the subcontractor, does the prime contractor still have to pay the subcontractor?...more
6/6/2024
/ Breach of Contract ,
Construction Industry ,
Contract Terms ,
Cybersecurity ,
Damages ,
DFARS ,
Equitable Relief ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Hackers ,
Prime Contractor ,
Security and Privacy Controls ,
Subcontractors ,
Summary Judgment ,
Supply Chain
On May 9, 2024, the Supreme Court of Virginia held that a lawsuit alleging that the state government had procured a contractor's settlement of a contract dispute using economic duress and bad faith could proceed, rejecting...more
When two companies negotiate a subcontract in support of a federal government prime contract ("federal subcontract"), they may include provisions capping their liability to each other at specific amounts. In structuring such...more
2/28/2024
/ Breach of Contract ,
Construction Contracts ,
Contract Drafting ,
Contract Terms ,
Counterclaims ,
Damage Caps ,
Federal Contractors ,
Fluor ,
Liability ,
Prime Contractor ,
Quantum Meruit ,
Subcontractors
On January 29, 2024, the Biden administration announced a series of pay equity and transparency initiatives. One initiative comes in the form of a proposed rule to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to (1)...more
2/1/2024
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Biden Administration ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Compliance ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
General Solicitation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Ads ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Professional Services Contract ,
Proposed Rules ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Service Contract Labor Standards (SCLS) ,
Subcontractors ,
Transparency
The Department of Defense (DoD) delivered its proposed Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Program rule (CMMC) the day after Christmas this year, including several related guidance documents (listed here). The proposed...more
1/2/2024
/ Certification Requirements ,
Comment Period ,
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) ,
Defense Contracts ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
DFARS ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
NIST ,
Proposed Rules ,
Subcontractors
Government contractors often "flow down" contract clauses from the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and its supplements to their subcontractors, including clauses related to changes (e.g., FAR 52.243-1) and excusable...more
In recent years, we have seen statutory and regulatory exclusions from federal contracting of various entities and their goods and services happening outside the normal suspension and debarment process, the most notable being...more
One of the primary benefits of the federal government’s Other Transaction Authority (OTA) is that it avoids delays, regulatory burdens, and expenses associated with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agencies’ FAR...more
On May 18, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (DDC) issued a decision with significant potential consequences for federal contractors and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). ...more
6/22/2023
/ Bid Protests ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Procurement Systems ,
Gross Receipts ,
NAICS ,
Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) ,
SBA ,
Set-Aside Contracts ,
Small Business ,
Subcontractors ,
Tax Returns
On June 1, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in United States ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu Inc. reversing a pair of False Claims Act (FCA) cases on review from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In...more
6/7/2023
/ Drug Pricing ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fraud ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Objective Falsity ,
Objective Standard ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmacies ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Qui Tam ,
Reasonable Interpretations ,
Scienter ,
SCOTUS ,
Subjective Standard ,
Universal Health Services Inc v United States ex rel Escobar ,
US ex rel Thomas Proctor v Safeway Inc ,
US ex rel Tracy Schutte et al v SuperValu Inc et al
When companies are alerted to potential violations of policy or relevant law, they frequently open internal investigations to determine the events that occurred and whether the circumstances require corrective action....more
Several years after initially proposing the rule and receiving feedback from federal contractors and a prominent government contracting scholar, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council recently released a final rule...more
Teaming agreements are a common, beneficial, and sometimes necessary way for industry to come together and meet the federal government’s needs. But the devil is in the details. A recent decision from the U.S. District Court...more
12/2/2022
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
FEMA ,
Fraud ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
General Solicitation ,
Joint Venture ,
Material Misrepresentation ,
Misrepresentation ,
Partnerships ,
Prime Contractor ,
Subcontractors ,
Teaming Agreements
Though we are not yet halfway through 2022, the COFC has issued two decisions that highlight divergent views from GAO precedent regarding the availability of key personnel and whether there is a presumption that an Agency...more