DE Under 3: U.S. GAO Report on Military Spouse Employment Focused on Challenges of Part-Time Work
A Discussion with GAO General Counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez
GovCon Perspectives Podcast Episode 24: Effective Use of “Open and Frank” Discussions in Bid Protests
Award Protests: Choosing the Forum
How to Assess the Likelihood of Success in Deciding Whether to Bring a Bid Protest
The United States Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) issued a July 2024 report titled: Clean Water: Revolving Fund Grant Formula Could Better Reflect Infrastructure Needs, and EPA Could Improve Needs Estimate...more
Congress Continues Election Recess. Members are on the campaign trail and are scheduled to return for the lame duck session on November 12, 2024. CMS Releases Proposed NBPP for 2026. The proposed Notice of Benefit and...more
“Conflict Minerals—Peace and Security in Democratic Republic of the Congo Have Not Improved with SEC Disclosure Rule.” That is the title of the final required report of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the last of...more
Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) published a proposed rule that would amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement a statutory prohibition on DOD awarding contracts with...more
With another government fiscal year in the books, contractors may be anticipating the next season of bid protests. The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Oak Grove Technologies v. United States offers a timely set of...more
We have actively monitored the drum beat of bid protest decisions addressing lapses in an offeror’s System for Award Management (SAM.gov or SAM) registration and their impact on an offeror’s eligibility for award. More recent...more
FTC Staff Report on Social Media Platforms’ Privacy and Security Practices - On September 19, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or the “Commission”) announced the release of its staff report, “A Look Behind the...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) recently held its 2024 Exploratory Workshop titled “The Evolving Landscape of Human Research with AI – Putting Ethics to Practice”...more
Beyond their immediate purpose of resolving procurement disputes, bid protest decisions of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims are valuable in two other ways. First, these rulings...more
On September 19, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report highlighting a gap in current Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCIs) restrictions. According to the report, the Federal Acquisition Regulation...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
Parties to the Dispute- The union and management teams reached a settlement agreement that was announced on October 4, 2024 to end the port strike. The settlement does not resolve the issues, but extends the master...more
U.S. President Biden signed a bill last Thursday postponing the sunset date of the rare pediatric disease Priority Review Voucher (PRV) program from September 30, 2024, to December 20, 2024. The bill, the “Continuing...more
On September 12, the House Committee on Financial Services penned a letter requesting GAO assistance in evaluating the memberships of federal banking agencies in the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the...more
On April 14, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) issued its first cybersecurity best practices guidance for retirement plans. The EBSA guidance was highly...more
University-driven innovation is a cornerstone of societal progress, as academic institutions play a pivotal role in advancing research and technology that fuel economic growth, enhance quality of life, and address global...more
One forum to raise a protest against the award of a contract is at the agency responsible for the procurement, pursuant to the procedures set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) 33.103. The procedures require that...more
While most contractors think of the Government Accountability Office and Court of Federal Claims (or even the agency) when considering whether to challenge a government contract award, there are additional options for small...more
In this Part XI of my multi-part series on some of the not-so-obvious aspects of S corporations, I explore a topic that should be obvious but which appears to be ignored by many taxpayers and their tax advisers – accurate...more
With just a week to go in FY24, federal agencies are rushing to spend those "use it or lose it" dollars. And while there are a number of reasons that support filing a bid protest when you're an unsuccessful offeror – this...more
SBA Proposed Changes to 8(a) Program Impacts Applicants and Participants - As PilieroMazza noted recently here, the Small Business Administration (SBA) released a major proposed rulemaking that will impact government...more
In a decision issued on September 16, 2024, the United States Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) ruled that federal contracting rules do not prohibit government agencies from requiring contractors to enter into labor...more
On September 10, the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) issued an opinion in Zolon PCS II, LLC v. United States, holding that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA or Agency) unreasonably issued a deviation from FAR...more
This article is part of a monthly column that provides takeaways from recent bid protest cases. This installment highlights three decisions from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Each of this month's decisions...more
The Small Business Administration (SBA) has released a proposed rule that would significantly alter a number of SBA small business program regulations, including those governing size recertifications. ...more