On January 15, 2025, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council published a proposed rule overhauling the FAR’s Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) provisions. The proposed rule follows a December 2022 law that...more
1/23/2025
/ Bias ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Contract Terms ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Donald Trump ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
GAO ,
Government Agencies ,
Mitigation ,
Offerors ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Freeze ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Subcontractors
On December 23, 2024, President Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The annual bill authorizes spending for the Department of Defense (DOD) while setting other...more
1/9/2025
/ Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals ,
Bid Protests ,
Court of Federal Claims ,
Defense Contracts ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Federal Contractors ,
GAO ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Joe Biden ,
National Security ,
NDAA ,
Secretary of Defense ,
Small Business ,
Supply Chain ,
Trade Secrets
Buried in Section 885 of the current draft of the National Defense Authorization Action (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 is a new attempt to figure out how to make unsuccessful bid protesters pay. As of this posting, the NDAA has...more
This article is part of a monthly column that provides takeaways from recent bid protest cases. In this installment, we highlight decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Government...more
10/8/2024
/ Bid Protests ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Court of Federal Claims ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
DFARS ,
Documentation ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
GAO ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
Procurement Guidelines ,
Solicitation ,
U.S. Navy
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has issued a policy memorandum with a goal of promoting small business participation under multiple-award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts (MACs). One of the...more
Small business regulations create one of the stickier wickets in bid protest litigation. Although the Small Business Administration (SBA) has exclusive authority to determine a company’s size and socioeconomic status, the...more
This month's protest spotlight highlights three decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The decisions feature arguments that unsuccessful offerors often want to make, but that are rarely successful, as well as...more
12/7/2023
/ Bias ,
Bid Protests ,
Competition ,
Competitive Bidding ,
Contractors ,
Favoritism ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
GAO ,
Good Faith ,
Offerors ,
Solicitation ,
Unfair Competition
In the right circumstances, an agency-level protest can be a quick and efficient way to address certain procurement errors, as we discussed a few years ago. One downside of agency‑level protests, however, is their potential...more
This month’s bid protest roundup looks at two GAO protests from August. One examines the risks of using former federal employees to assist with proposal development when their prior access to non-public information might...more
9/20/2023
/ Bid Protests ,
Buy American Act ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Construction Project ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
GAO ,
Material Suppliers ,
Offerors ,
Waivers
If you’ve been following the saga of the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center’s (NITAAC) Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners (CIO-SP4) procurement, you likely...more
Offerors whose proposals are disqualified for immaterial typographical and data input errors will want to read an interesting new protest decision from the Court of Federal Claims. In Aspire Therapy Services & Consultants,...more
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued an important new decision in the protest of AttainX,Inc ., B-421216, B-421216.2, Jan. 23, 2023, 2023 WL 1860802. The decision addresses how agencies must evaluate the...more
A common mistake in competitive procurements is a mechanical fixation on the adjectival ratings, color ratings, or numerical “scores” a procuring agency assigns a proposal under a particular evaluation factor. In best value...more
Each year around this time, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) publishes its annual report to Congress on bid protests. Earlier this week, the GAO published the report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022....more
As most experts expected, Congress has passed the bill to reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs until September 30, 2025. The bill is now headed for the White House, where the President is expected to sign it into law....more
In this month’s bid protest roundup, we consider: (1) an exception to the normal rule governing reliance on affiliate experience and past performance; and (2) two different bid protests of very similar solicitation terms that...more
9/13/2022
/ Bid Protests ,
Court of Federal Claims ,
Federal Contractors ,
GAO ,
Joint Venture ,
Past Performance ,
Registration Requirement ,
Solicitation ,
Subcontractors ,
System For Award Management (SAM) ,
US State Departments
For evaluation purposes in a federal procurement, may an offeror rely upon the past performance and experience of its affiliates? The answer generally is a qualified yes, but the answer and the qualifications may change...more
In the seminal decision Blue & Gold Fleet, L.P. v. United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that “a party who has the opportunity to object to the terms of a government solicitation containing a...more
This month’s roundup considers three recent protests: (1) an important decision by the Court of Federal Claims rejecting controversial precedents of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) concerning key personnel...more
An interesting new bid protest decision from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims articulates a rule for pre-award key personnel unavailability that is very different from the one employed by the U.S. Government Accountability...more
The General Services Administration’s Federal Supply Schedule contracts are an efficient method for agencies across the Government to meet their needs for many commercially available supplies and services. For requirements...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued its long-awaited decision in Harmonia Holdings Group, LLC v. United States, vacating a bid protest decision the U.S. Court of Federal Claims rendered nearly two...more
The Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) procurement of the National Institutes of Health’s Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) has garnered a great deal of attention....more
This installment of our monthly Law360 bid protest spotlight considers: (1) a company’s successful challenge to an agency’s decision to take corrective action and reopen a competition the company had already won; (2) a...more
3/12/2021
/ Appeals ,
Army ,
Automatic Stay ,
Bid Proposals ,
Bid Protests ,
COFC ,
Corporate Conversions ,
Corrective Actions ,
Debriefing ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Veterans Affairs ,
Dismissals ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
GAO ,
Lack of Jurisdiction ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
LPTA ,
Name Changes ,
Offerors ,
Solicitation
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued a precedential decision in NIKA Technologies, Inc. v. United States, reversing a decision by the Court of Federal Claims on the timelines for securing a stay of contract...more