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
Department of Defense (DOD) Proposed Rule: Transactions Other Than Contracts, Grants, or Cooperative Agreements for Prototype Projects - On September 4, DOD published a proposed rule and request for comments regarding...more
This month’s Bid Protest Roundup highlights three recent protests from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The first protest concerns whether the protester is an interested party; the second involves the adequacy of an...more
A recent decision, Independent Rough Terrain Center, LLC v. United States (“IRTC”),[1] confirms the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has jurisdiction over bid protests related to follow-on production contracts arising out of...more
The Department of Defense assessed an average of about 40 defense-related mergers and acquisitions each year from 2018 to 2022, a small portion of the roughly 400 defense mergers estimated to occur annually, according to a...more
Bid protests of other transaction agreements, also known as “OTs” or “OTAs,” are a common topic for this blog. These federal agreements differ from your everyday procurement contracts in that they are not subject to the...more
7(a) Loan Approval for Borrowers with Unresolved COVID-19 Pandemic Loan Compliance Issues: On May 21, SBA’s OIG issued an inspection report assessing SBA’s 7(a) loan approval process for borrowers with unresolved pandemic...more
Current and future U.S. defense contractors, and entities interested in acquiring these contractors, should prepare for increased regulatory scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions. Congress is signaling that...more
FTC Non-Compete Ban Attacked by Businesses: What You Need to Know about the Ban - On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a final rule banning employers from enforcing non-compete agreements against...more
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council Final Rule: Sustainable Procurement - On April 22, the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration published a...more
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report on April 15, 2024, entitled “Persistent Chemicals: Navy Efforts to Address PFAS at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.” GAO states that it was asked to examine...more
Claims Update - CLogic LLC v. United States, No. 23-6 L, Fed. Cl. (March 21, 2024) The Court of Federal Claims issued what appears to be its first opinion involving a performance dispute under a DoD prototype Other...more
Mergers and acquisitions involving companies that conduct business with the federal government present a unique set of challenges. Several statutes and regulations are implicated in such corporate transactions, whether the...more
Keys to Avoiding GAO’s Timeliness Trap - GAO’s recent decision in Marathon Medical Corporation provides a cautionary tale for government contractors seeking to protest the terms by which an agency conducts a procurement....more
House Passes $460 Billion Package of Spending Bills. Senate Expected to Act Before Shutdown Deadline, Federal News Network - The House passed a $460 billion package of spending bills Wednesday that would keep money...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
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published a report focusing on the risks associated with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the defense space and concluded that the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD)...more
Parties contemplating transactions in the defense sector need to know about a new obligation to provide materials to the Department of Defense (DOD) that will substantially affect their obligations for transactions that are...more
This month’s Bid Protest Roundup include decisions regarding supplementation of the record and whether an agency may convert a sealed bid opportunity into a negotiated procurement due to lack of funds, as well as a case in...more
Each month, Venable's Government Contracts Group publishes a summary of recent policy and legal developments of interest to the government contractor community. The federal government took several noteworthy actions in the...more
Department of Defense (DOD) Final Rule: Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) Consolidation of DOD Government Property Clauses - On December 22, 2023, DOD issued a Final Rule amending the DFARS to...more
The recent bid protest decision in ELS, Inc., B-421989, December 21, 2023, 2023 CPD highlights an important aspect of bid protest litigation before the U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO"): task order jurisdiction....more
H.R. 357, Ensuring Accountability in Agency Rulemaking Act, Passed House - On December 12, the House passed legislation requiring the vast majority of rules issued by federal agencies to be signed and issued by a...more
We took a look at the 2024 NDAA with respect to PFAS, since Congress has a track record of passing substantive provisions to require EPA to regulate PFAS in prior NDAA legislation. Although not as consequential as the 2020...more
Department of Defense (DOD) Proposed Rule: National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM); Amendment - On December 13, the DOD published a proposed rule amending the NISPOM based on public comments...more
As the 2023 calendar year comes to a close, there are a number of important legal, regulatory, and other updates relevant to the government contracts industry. This digest provides an overview of the government's annual bid...more