Jump to content
  • entries
    1,823
  • comments
    54
  • views
    72,678

Entries in this blog

Back to Basics: Similarly Situated Entities

If you are a small business government contractor who ever utilizes subcontractors to complete federal set-aside contracts, knowing what a “similarly situated entity” is for a given contract is vital to your success. So, let’s take it back to the basics of “similarly situated entities.” Even if you are not sure where this term comes from, don’t fret, a great place to start is this other Back to Basics blog on limitations on subcontracting. Because as you guessed it, the term comes from t

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Michael Lejeune’s New Book Now Available!

Please check out the new release from my friend, federal contracting expert Michael LeJeune. Bestselling author and GovCon expert, Michael LeJeune is releasing his new book, “I’m New to Government Contracting – Where Should I Start?” on March 26th. Michael’s new book has all that a growing federal contractor needs to get started on a path to success. I was especially struck by the emphasis on avoiding shortcuts. As a GovCon attorney, we sometimes hear about get-rich-quick schemes involving

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

GAO: Small Business Teaming Agreement Must Follow Solicitation Guidelines

As we often tell people, language in a teaming agreement is important for a federal contract. But so is complying with the terms of a solicitation. A recent GAO decision hinged on a very specific portion of the language in a teaming agreement that was required as part of a solicitation. Because the contractor did not include the required language in a teaming agreement, it lost out on an award. In Global Patent Solutions, LLC, B-421602.2 (Feb. 23, 2024), GAO looked at a solicitation fro

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Why File: A Request For Equitable Adjustment

If you are a government contractor, odds are you have faced a situation where some aspect of the contract you were performing changed outside of your control, or you ran into something that neither you nor the government expected. As a result, your work requirements likely changed, and with that, your costs likely changed as well. When this happens, there are multiple paths to getting reimbursements for those new costs, and one of the most common ones is a request for equitable adjustment. Today

SmallGovCon Week in Review: March 18-22, 2024

Hope you are having a good week readers, and enjoying some March Madness. While it looks like spring in our neck of the woods, in this part of the country the weather can change quickly. We joke around that we must always have every type of coat or jacket at the ready on any given day. Never a dull moment! Speaking of never a dull moment, the NCAA tournament has started and there certainly have been some great games in the first round! How’s your bracket doing? We hope you had a great week

Webinar Event!  SBA’s Mentor-Protégé Program hosted by Connecticut APEX Accelerators, March 21, 2023, 11:00am EDT

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the advantages of the SBA’s Mentor-Protégé program? Join Allisa Young, CT APEX – Procurement Specialist, along with the subject-matter experts from Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC to learn how the SBA Mentor-Protégé program can help leverage your business in regards to government contracting opportunities. We will discuss the eligibility criteria for both the “Mentors” & “Proteges”, along with information about how to apply. Stephanie Ellis, Attorney for

Govology Webinar: Navigating Government Regulations in Solicitations and Contracts, March 27, 2024, 1:00pm EDT

Steven Koprince, Govology Legal Analyst and retired founder of Koprince McCall Pottroff will be presenting this webinar to help you understand the applicable rules and regulations in government contracts and the Federal Acquisition Regulation. These rules can be lengthy and complex–and contractors may also need to follow rules outside the FAR, such as those found in FAR supplements and the regulations of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Please join Steve as he walks you through the proces

First Annual MyGovWatch Buyer Survey Results May Surprise You

This post was written by our friend and colleague, Nick Bernardo, president of MyGovWatch, a bid notification and intelligence website offering a free trial to government contractors in more than 200 industries. Over the years, MyGovWatch has accumulated tens of thousands of buyer email addresses, from Federal government buyers in the DC Beltway all the way down to the tiniest school districts in the remote American hinterlands. In January, we decided to conduct our first-ever survey am

Webinar! Small Business Certifications, March 20, 2024, 10:00-11:00 am CDT

Please join federal government contracts attorneys Nicole Pottroff & Greg Weber for this informative webinar on SBA certifications hosted by Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship. Participants will get an overview about the Small Business Certifications including: Woman Owned Small Business and Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business 8(a)  Business Development Program HUBZone (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) Service Disabled Veteran Own

SmallGovCon Week in Review: March 11-15, 2024

Happy Friday and happy, early Saint Patrick’s Day. We hope you have some fun things planned for the weekend. Here, in Lawrence, Kansas, preparations are underway for the annual St. Patty’s Day parade. It seems the whole town comes out to celebrate and it’s a very fun and festive spectacle. I think more than anything, people are just ready to get outside to enjoy the warmer temperatures. Before you head into your weekend activities, here are a few articles on what’s happening in the federal g

GAO Says: SBA’s Rules for Mentor-Protégé Joint Venture Experience Evaluations May Limit Solicitation Terms

Contractors will often enter into mentor protégé relationships and joint ventures to leverage the experience and skills of multiple parties for various reasons. SBA regulations dictate how the capabilities, past performance, and experience of a mentor-protégé joint venture will be evaluated. But at the end of the day, what matters is, whether agencies will follow those regulations in their small business set-aside solicitations and evaluations thereunder. A recent GAO case addressed this issue,

SmallGovCon Week in Review: March 4-8, 2024

Happy Friday! March Madness is upon us! For you college basketball fans, it’s a great time of year. The upsets keep things exciting, even if they do bust everyone’s brackets. I guess that’s what makes March Madness so maddening and exciting–one can never predict the outcome. Listening to the news out of the federal government can sometimes feel like March Madness. So, before you start your weekend of studying those basketball stats, here are some things that happened in federal government c

8(a) Program’s Two Years in Business Rule: Requirement or Suggestion?

It is no doubt that the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program is a first-class program: there is a reason that some of us around here tend to say that it is one of the most important of federal government contracting programs. And in the past year, there has been a flurry of activity surrounding the 8(a) Program. For the most part, this uptick in activity has had to do with the requirement that all applicants prove they are socially disadvantaged in light of the the Ultima decision that we’ve

Playing Dr. Frankenstein: DoD Memo Tries to Revive Joint Venture Facility Clearance Requirements

Back in 2021, GAO came down with a clear decision on whether Department of Defense (DoD) agencies could require a joint venture (JV) to have its own facility clearance level (FCL) if its component members held the required FCL themselves. Infopoint LLC, B-419856 (Aug. 27, 2021). That decision was “no,” and it was based on a very strong foundation: The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (2020 NDAA), an act of Congress, contained a provision, Section 1629, expressly forbidding DoD agencies fr

Why File: A NAICS Code Appeal

A NAICS code appeal can be a powerful tool for altering the competitive landscape of a bid by changing what size of business is allowed to submit a bid and thereby either increasing or decreasing the potential competitor pool. This post explores some of the important reasons for considering filing a NAICS code appeal. While NAICS codes appeals are not that common, they have a fairly high rate of success. What is a NAICS Code? A NAICS code is a six-digit code that is assigned to vari

SmallGovCon Week in Review: Feb 26-March 1, 2024

Hello, blog readers and happy Friday. Can you believe it’s already March? In just a few short weeks, spring will (finally) be here! We hope that you’re gearing up for a nice weekend. But before you punch out, let’s take a look at the-week that was. In this edition of the Week in Review, Congress passed a short term spending measure to avoid another government shutdown and a report was released citing that federal employee whistleblower complaints have dropped, and Congress is trying to impr

2024 NDAA will Update DFARS to Require Evaluation of Small Business Affiliate Past Performance

The 2024 NDAA is directing quite a change in past performance evaluations for offerors in Department of Defense acquisitions. Historically, an offeror’s affiliate’s past performance is not automatically considered along with the offeror’s proposal, although an agency could consider it. The 2024 NDAA, though, has actually mandated a change within the DFARS that will up-end this long-held tenet for Department of Defense contracts. Some background is probably warranted before discussing th

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

MyGovWatch YouTube Video Available Now!

Join our attorneys, Nicole Pottroff and John Holtz, on the latest edition of MyGovWatch, now on YouTube. This podcast, hosted by Nick Bernardo, covered a wide variety of current government contracting topics and answered all the right questions. From the migration of the Veteran Small Business Program from the VA to the SBA (and the first appeal reviewing SBA’s SDVOSB “grace period”)–to the most-recently updated size standards and the assignment of (the often incorrect) NAICS codes to federal co

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

1 Day Virtual Event! The Essentials for Small Business Government Contracting, February 29, 2024

Whether you are a small, medium or even a large contractor seeking to team with small businesses, this course will discuss the different regulations you must follow, the different small business programs set up by the SBA, the advantages and disadvantages of the JV & Mentor Protégé programs, plus other topics of interest. This live virtual event will be hosted by Larry Allen and Nicole Pottroff and Stephanie Ellis will be joining Larry for the afternoon session. We hope you will consider att

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

SmallGovCon Week in Review: February 19-23, 2024

Happy final Friday of February! Can you believe that next week is March already? I guess we can start preparing for St. Patrick’s Day because it will be here soon. I think folks are hoping that our spring like weather will hold and that winter is over. Of course, in Kansas, the weather can change on a dime so we won’t count on it! Here’s hoping the weather is nice wherever you are and have a great weekend. This week in federal government contracting news included reactions to proposed feder

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

OHA Sustains Status Protest: Self-Proclaimed SDVOSB Awardee Not Certified by VetCert, Not Eligible For SBA’s Grace Period, And Not Veteran Owned or Controlled

In Mckenna Brytan Indus. LLC, SBA No. VSBC-334, 2023 (Feb. 8, 2024), the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) sustained the Service-Disabled Small Business (SDVOSB) status protest of BTNG Enterprises, LLC (BTNG). In its decision, OHA reiterated the two current regulatory options for calling yourself an “SDVOSB” concern: the first, is having your SDVOSB application officially approved by the SBA and your company listed in the SBA’s Veteran Small Business C

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Shopping for a New Small Business: How Acquisitions Affect Size Status for Multiple-Award Contracts

As federal contracts attorneys, we often get questions about what happens in the event of an acquisition of a small business. Reporting requirements, whether before or after an acquisition, tend to vary from one type of small business socioeconomic program to another. And there are other considerations such as whether the small business in question is the one being acquired or the one acquiring another small business and the timing with regard to proposal submission, contract performance, task o

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

A Bridge (Not) Too Far: Prohibition on Dividing up Contracts to get Under 8(a) Sole Source Dollar Limit Doesn’t Apply to Bridge Contracts

Under 13 C.F.R. § 124.506, if an 8(a) contract price would exceed a certain threshold ($7 million for manufacturing contracts, $4.5 million for others), in most cases, the agency must compete the set-aside.  13 C.F.R. § 124.506(a)(5) is a provision meant to close up what otherwise would be a loophole in the rules. It states that “[a] proposed 8(a) requirement with an estimated value exceeding the applicable competitive threshold amount may not be divided into several separate procurement actions

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Agency Could Not Accept Price Above Awardee’s FSS Price, GAO Says

If you feel like prices for just about everything are going up, you’re not alone. I recently got my annual property tax bill, and the first thing I did (after recovering from a brief fainting spell) was to start Googling to find out how much I could get for one of my kidneys on the black market. I get the feeling that my county tax assessor would consider anything less than a double digit increase to be an embarrassing professional failure. In federal government contracting, however, a contr

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Free Webinar! The SBA Mentor-Protégé Program hosted by Washington DC APEX Accelerators, February 27, 10:30am -12:30 PM EST

Touted as a “game-changer” when it was first introduced in 2016, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s All Small Mentor-Protégé  Program isn’t new anymore. Known now as simply the “SBA Mentor-Protégé  Program, it is still extremely powerful for large and small contractors alike. In this webinar, Gregory Weber and I will explain the ins and out of the SBA Mentor-Protégé  Program, covering the program’s eligibility requirements, its potent benefits (including the ability to form special Me

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

×
×
  • Create New...