We represented AM General (AMG), an automotive manufacturer that builds military vehicles for government customers, including the Humvee, in a successful bid protest involving a $9.7 billion contract for the U.S. Army to...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
For nearly two years, we have been reporting on this blog about the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. CMMC is a training, certification, and third-party assessment...more
On December 6, we noted on this blog post that because the injunction issued by the District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on November 30 prohibiting the government from enforcing the government contractor...more
12/8/2021
/ Appeals ,
Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Federal Property and Administrative Services Act (FPASA) ,
Injunctions ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
OSHA ,
State and Local Government ,
Statutory Authority ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations
As we previously reported, on November 30, the District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky (ED of KY) enjoined the government “from enforcing the vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors in all...more
12/7/2021
/ Appeals ,
Biden Administration ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays ,
Subcontractors ,
Vaccinations
In a decision issued on November 17, JKB Solutions v. United States, the Federal Circuit held that the commercial item termination for convenience provision at FAR 52.212-4(l) incorporated by reference into a contract for...more
On November 30, the District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky enjoined the government contractor vaccine mandate issued in accordance with President Biden’s Executive Order 14042. This injunction follows an...more
12/1/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Contractors ,
Health and Safety ,
Injunctions ,
Likelihood of Success ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Non-Delegation Doctrine ,
OSHA ,
State and Local Government ,
Tenth Amendment ,
Vaccinations
Likely in response to the flurry of litigation challenging the government contractor vaccine mandate, on November 16 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a new notice of determination and request for comments...more
11/18/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Compliance ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
OMB ,
OSHA ,
Stays ,
Subcontractors ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
In an opinion first publicly released on November 3, the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) took the somewhat usual, but not unheard of, step of sanctioning the government for mishandling the administrative record (AR) in a bid...more
As expected, late on November 10 the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force revised its government contractor vaccine mandate Guidance to extend the deadline for covered contractor employees to get vaccinated. This revision...more
11/11/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employees ,
Deadlines ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
New Guidance ,
OSHA ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations
The five cases challenging the contractor vaccine mandate filed in various district courts by 22 states, which we discussed on this blog last week, continue to develop. Motions for preliminary injunctions have now been filed...more
11/11/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Contractors ,
Injunctions ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
OSHA ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays ,
Vaccinations