We have addressed on this blog questions relating to jurisdiction at the GAO, Court of Federal Claims (CFC), and district courts to hear suits relating to awards using the government’s Other Transaction (OT) authority....more
On April 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling denying a bid from two outdoor recreation companies asking for a preliminary injunction on a 2021 Department of Labor (DOL) rule...more
On April 1, the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) opened its Contractor Portal for its annual Affirmative Action Program (AAP) certification. Covered federal contractors and...more
On February 14, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) dismissed a protest by Marathon Medical Corporation, an unsuccessful bidder, concluding that its protest was untimely.
GAO reasoned that its strict timeliness...more
On December 21, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) dismissed a protest by ELS, an unsuccessful bidder on a Department of Defense (DOD) task order opportunity, concluding that it did not have jurisdiction to consider...more
On December 20, 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied an unsuccessful bidder’s protest, arguing, among other things, that the procurement was tainted by an appearance of impropriety after the agency...more
On December 26, the Department of Defense (DoD) published its long-awaited Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program proposed rule, which places comprehensive cybersecurity and information security...more
1/3/2024
/ Certification Requirements ,
Comment Period ,
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) ,
DCMA ,
Defense Contracts ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Federal Contractors ,
NIST ,
Proposed Rules
On November 8, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied an unsuccessful bidder’s protest that asserted the Veteran Administration’s (VA) evaluation of Texas Waste Company’s past performance was unreasonable and...more
On November 21, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied an unsuccessful bidder’s protest, arguing that the terms of a solicitation were biased and that the awardee failed to comply with a mandatory solicitation...more
On October 26, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent its annual bid protest report to Congress, which reflected a dramatic increase in protests filed following four straight years of decline.
The report provides...more
On May 1, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (SFWTF) issued an update that the Biden administration plans to end COVID-19 vaccination mandates established under Executive Orders (EO) 14042 on Ensuring Adequate COVID...more
On April 19, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a permanent injunction that had enjoined President Biden’s “Contractor Vaccine Mandate,” taking an expansive view of presidential authority under the...more
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2023 includes a short but interesting provision reminding the Department of Defense (DoD) that the unilateral insertion of a new clause in a DoD contract is a change that may entitle...more
12/28/2022
/ Bids ,
Compensation ,
Contractors ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
DFARS ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
House Armed Services Committee ,
NDAA ,
New Legislation ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Solicitation ,
Unilateral Modification
On December 15, the U.S. Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the Fiscal Year 2023 by an 83-11 vote. The annual legislation changes U.S. defense agencies’ policies and regulations and provides...more
As we have discussed at length on this blog, for more than a year federal courts have repeatedly held that, for various reasons, President Biden lacked the authority to mandate by executive order that government contractors...more
Unbelievably, after the 11th Circuit narrowed the nationwide injunction issued by the Southern District of Georgia on August 30, which took effect when the court issued its mandate on October 18, the government began...more
After we published a post about the Eleventh Circuit’s decision to narrow the scope of the nationwide preliminary injunction of the government contractor vaccine mandate, the government announced that, for the time being, it...more
On Friday, August 26, the Eleventh Circuit published the long-awaited decision in the government’s appeal of a nationwide injunction halting the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for government contractors and subcontractors. Although...more
On February 4, President Biden signed the Executive Order on Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects, which mandates, with limited exceptions, that contractors and subcontractors working on federal...more
2/11/2022
/ Construction Industry ,
Construction Project ,
Contractors ,
Employees ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Joe Biden ,
Project Labor Agreements ,
Subcontractors ,
Unions
Last week, the District Court for the Eastern District of California denied the defendant’s motion for summary judgment of a False Claims Act (FCA) count against Aerojet Rocketdyne (Aerojet) for allegedly fraudulently...more
After we published our article last week about the status of the four federal vaccine mandates, we learned that a seventh district court had enjoined the federal contractor COVID-19 vaccine mandate, continuing a remarkable...more
2/1/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employees ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Injunctions ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Popular ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
The vaccine mandates President Biden announced on September 9 have not aged well. Two are enjoined nationwide and a skeptical Supreme Court so undermined one that the government withdrew it, at least for the immediate future....more
1/31/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Injunctions ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
OSHA ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky's Nov. 30 injunction, in Kentucky v. Biden, prohibiting enforcement of the government contractor vaccine mandate against contractors and subcontractors in Kentucky,...more
In the past few days, there have been multiple developments in the legal challenges to the various vaccine mandates, one in favor of a mandate, one against. In addition, the first vaccine mandate challenge has now reached the...more
12/22/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Compliance ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Injunctions ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
OSHA ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays ,
Time Extensions ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
On December 16, in the challenge filed by Louisiana, Mississippi, and Indiana to the federal contractor vaccine mandate, the Western District of Louisiana (WD of LA) granted the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction...more