Preparing for Post-Award Debriefings
As in prior years, the upcoming end of the federal fiscal year will be marked by a flurry of contract and task order awards, as federal agencies busily obligate remaining fiscal year 2023 appropriated funds while still...more
Welcome to Jenner & Block’s Government Contracts Legal Round‑Up, a biweekly update on important government contracts developments. This update offers brief summaries of key developments for government contracts legal,...more
Virtually every year, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO’s) Bid Protest Annual Report includes “flawed technical evaluations” as one of the top five most common grounds for successful protests. Simply stated, this...more
This month’s Bid Protest Roundup covers two recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decisions and a decision from the Court of Federal Claims. All involve defense procurements, but each offers a unique lesson for...more
On March 18, 2022, the Department of Defense (“DOD”) issued its long-awaited Final Rule implementing Section 818 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (“NDAA FY 2018”), and formally codifying defense...more
In a recent decision, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reinforced the rule that offerors who choose to defer a pre-award debriefing until after a source selection decision do so at their own peril. Close...more
On March 18, 2022, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a final rule to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to mandate that DoD provide enhanced postaward debriefings to contractors. As we...more
The GAO’s recent decision in K&K Industries, Inc. reinforces for disappointed offerors that once the government unequivocally states that a debriefing has concluded, the clock has started ticking on the time to file a...more
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has just locked in its Enhanced Postaward Debriefing procedures, making it easier for contractors to understand the source selection and contract award process and make informed bid...more
Government contractors: We are excited to continue our “GovCon Examiner Live” webinar series in 2022. Over the course of the next 12 months, the Chair of our Government Contracting department, Maria Panichelli, will bring her...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
Welcome back, readers! We hope that your 2022 is off to a great start. We’re starting this year off with some information about an important Federal Circuit case from late last year, which did not get the attention it should...more
In this episode, John Prairie and Cara Lasley discuss what you need to know about post-award debriefings. Following the end of the fiscal year, companies will likely see an uptick in post-award debriefings. John and Cara...more
Obermayer is excited to continue its “GovCon Examiner Live” webinar series in 2021. Over the course of the next 12 months, our experienced government contracting attorney Maria Panichelli will bring her popular GovCon...more
As you may recall, Section 818 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (FY 2018 NDAA required the US Department of Defense (DoD) to draft regulations to establish comprehensive post-award debriefing...more
The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) recently sustained a protest in the matter of TekSynap Corporation for the agency’s failure to reasonably evaluate proposals. While the decision is not a novel area of law, it...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
No questions, no stay. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently ruled on the interplay of debriefings and automatic stays. In NIKA Technologies v. United States, the Federal Circuit reversed a Court...more
Followers of this blog will know that debriefings and protests (and more precisely, a debriefing’s potential impact on protest filing deadlines) are a common topic here at GovConExaminer. That’s mostly because the interplay...more
In NIKA Technologies v. U.S., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently reversed the holding of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims regarding when the protest-filing clock starts running for a stay of contract...more
The automatic stay of award is one of the key elements of a bid protest under the Competition in Contracting Act. The CICA stay is only available when a protest is filed no later than ten days after contract award or no later...more
A few months ago, we wrote about how the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC) had defined when the protest clock starts running for a stay of contract performance pending a bid protest if the Department of Defense’s (DOD)...more
Under 4 CFR § 21.2, disappointed offerors protesting the award of a contract must file their protest within “10 days after the basis of the protest is known or should have been known.” Notwithstanding the seemingly clear...more
...As most contractors know, a good protest requires a lot of thought and commitment to convince an agency or tribunal of why corrective action should be taken. The last thing a protester wants is to learn – too late – that...more
Contractors filed 2,071 bid protests at GAO in 2019– the lowest number in five years. One possible cause for the decline is the Department of Defense’s enhanced debriefing procedures. Enhanced debriefings mean that...more