The coronavirus pandemic has proven to be the most significant business crisis in global history. What will it take for multinational companies to aptly respond to the crisis while managing potential future harm from the...more
6/4/2020
/ Audits ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Defense Production Act ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Loans ,
Investigations ,
OIG ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Relief Measures ,
Small Business Loans
All respirators approved by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (“NIOSH”) now are “covered countermeasures” under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (“PREP”) Act provisions of the Public...more
As the Federal Government struggles to secure a sufficient volume of Personal Protective Equipment (“PPE”) – i.e., gloves, masks, gowns, face shields, etc. – for the nation’s health care workers and first responders, states...more
Last week, we (Ryan and Jonathan) published the COVID-19 Federal Contractor’s Survival Guide in the Coalition For Government Procurement’s Friday Flash. The Guide was very well received – perhaps because it didn’t once...more
COVID-19 (a.k.a. the Coronavirus) is upon us and it looks like it is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. In January, the Department of Health and Human Services declared the Coronavirus outbreak to constitute...more
On March 18, 2020, the President signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, H.R. 6201, Pub. L. No. 116-127 (the “Coronavirus Response Act”). Among other measures in response to the current pandemic, this...more
4/2/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Distributors ,
Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Immunity ,
Manufacturers ,
Medical Devices ,
Personal Protective Equipment ,
Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) ,
State of Emergency ,
Wrongful Death
Like you, we’ve been thinking a lot about COVID-19 (aka the coronavirus) lately, and the mountain of misinformation that has followed in its wake. While we concede we have stopped shaking people’s hands (which likely turned...more
On August 13, 2018, President Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2019. While the annual NDAAs are tracked, analyzed, and picked apart with great care by the federal contracting community,...more
1/31/2020
/ China ,
Department of Veterans Affairs ,
Federal Contractors ,
Health Care Providers ,
Huawei ,
National Institute of Health (NIH) ,
NDAA ,
Prime Contractor ,
Technology ,
TRICARE ,
ZTE
At the end of 2019, the Department of Defense (“DoD”) took another step to limit the potential cyber risks posed by telecommunications equipment manufactured by Chinese companies (and potentially Russian ones too). We...more
1/31/2020
/ China ,
Comment Period ,
Cybersecurity ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
DFARS ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Huawei ,
Interim Rule ,
NDAA ,
System For Award Management (SAM) ,
Telecommunications ,
ZTE
“Section 889(a)(1)(A) of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 prohibits the Federal Government from procuring or obtaining, or extending or renewing a contract to procure or obtain, ‘any...more
1/16/2020
/ China ,
Compliance ,
Exports ,
Federal Contractors ,
Foreign Policy ,
Huawei ,
Imports ,
NDAA ,
Risk Management ,
Supply Chain ,
Technology Sector ,
Telecommunications ,
US Trade Policies
As you probably know, we have been following very closely developments relating to Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which prohibits executive agencies from purchasing restricted products and...more
This month, and with great fanfare, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its creation of a Procurement Collusion Strike Force. We know what you’re thinking, and no – this Strike Force will not be starring in the...more
11/26/2019
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Bid Rigging ,
Collusion ,
Criminal Antitrust Litigation ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
DCIS ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DOJ Strike Force ,
FBI ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
Inspector General ,
Price-Fixing ,
Public Procurement Policies ,
State Attorneys ,
USPS
Approaching organizational integrity to resolve reputational threats before and after they may occur requires accounting for corporate values, public trust, corporate stakeholders, and reputation while seeking out and...more
A few years back, two of us had the privilege of joining a highly trained SWAT team in New Orleans responding to a call for a barricaded subject with an assault rifle. To be clear, by “joining” we mean observing from the...more
In 2012, the Penn State Lions went 8-4 on the field, passing 3,283 yards, rushing 740 yards, and scoring 349 points. This credible performance earned it a respectable 38th ranking out of the 124 schools in the NCAA’s Division...more
10/31/2018
/ Coaches ,
College Athletes ,
Colleges ,
Corporate Culture ,
Corporate Governance ,
Crime Statistics ,
Criminal Justice Reform ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Education Reform ,
Educational Institutions ,
Internal Investigations ,
Police ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Professors ,
Risk Mitigation ,
School Safety ,
Students ,
Teachers ,
Universities
An Analysis of NDAA Section 846’s Online Marketplace Provisions -
There has been a lot of speculation about the future of commercial items purchasing within the federal Government since Representative Mac Thornberry...more
In the words of Taylor Swift, “This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” While I suspect Ms. Swift was not writing about Section 801 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018 when she tweeted this...more
On May 18, 2017, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry introduced H.R. 2511, titled “The Defense Acquisition Streamlining and Transparency Act.” The bill drastically would change how commercial off-the-shelf...more
You no doubt have heard by now about GSA’s 23 June effort to “embrace modern technology while moving away from outmoded practices” – specifically, its implementation of the new Transactional Data Reporting Rule (“TDR Rule”)...more
Note: The following post is adapted from the forthcoming 2016/2017 GSA Schedule Handbook, published by ThompsonWest, due out later this year.
Any way you look at it, 2016 will be an interesting year. You may have heard...more
The last year has been a tough one for the GSA Multiple Award Schedules (“MAS”) program. The Federal Acquisition Service (“FAS”) – the agency charged with administering the MAS program – has struggled to re-invent itself and...more
While multi-million dollar False Claims Act (FCA) settlements paid by Government contractors get the lion’s share of the press, those with an attentive eye will have noticed a recent steady stream of more “contractor...more
Originally published in the San Diego Business Journal on January 21-27.
It has been noted, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In the world of Government Contracts Law, however, the more things change,...more