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Recent Task Force Meeting Underscores Challenges Facing SDVOSB Transfer from VA to SBA

Sometimes, task force meetings are held just for the sake of having meetings. However, on June 2nd and 3rd the Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development (IATF) and Advisory Committee on Veterans Business Affairs (ACVBA) met to discuss important issues facing small businesses. This shed much needed light on the issues fast approaching and what steps the SBA needs to take. The main topic of discussion was the pending CVE transfer. The transfer, as I soon found out, is decep

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

GOA Considers Receipt of Email During Regular Business Hours Adequate Notice

A recent GOA decision provides a costly lesson about the importance of having internal procedures to receive and respond to official e-mail communications when a company team member is unavailable. The stakes can be big–GAO recently dismissed a contractor’s protest challenging the Department of State’s decision to cancel a solicitation. The question in this matter revolved around when a party is deemed to have  received constructive notice of an agency’s cancellation of a solicitation. T

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law Welcomes Kevin Wickliffe

We are pleased to announce that Kevin Wickliffe has joined our team of government contracts attorney-authors here at Koprince Law. Before joining our team, Kevin served as general counsel and chief compliance officer at a federally registered institutional, manager-of-managers, investment adviser. His combined regulatory compliance, business, and legal experience give him a unique perspective in providing legal assistance on transactional matters and in interpreting the government’s complex rule

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Agency Properly Awarded Contract to Company with Nine Negative CPARs

Among some contractors, it’s taken as an article of faith that even a single negative Contractor Performance Assessment Report will effectively preclude the contractor from winning new government work. While it’s undoubtedly true, in my opinion, that some Contracting Officers place too much emphasis on a single less-than-perfect CPAR, it’s also true that a contractor with multiple negative CPARs can still win government contracts, so long as the government reasonably believes that the contra

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Event: Government Contracting Ethics, Hosted by Govology

In the commercial world, it’s normal to buy a good customer a holiday gift. But when your customer is Uncle Sam, you might break the law by giving that same gift. The government contracting ethics rules aren’t always as cut-and-dried as “don’t give the contracting officer a briefcase full of unmarked bills” (although you shouldn’t do that, either!) and the government’s rules sometimes vary from commercial norms. On June 10, please join me and Shane McCall as we cover the key ethics and rel

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

SmallGovCon: Week in Review May 31-June 4, 2021

Happy Friday blog readers! Can you believe that it is already June? The sunshine and warmer temperatures have returned here in the Midwest and I, for one, am grateful for it. We hope you can get out and enjoy the sunshine this weekend. There has been a lot of activity in the federal government contracting arena this week. Some noteworthy items are the announcements from the Biden administration concerning agency hiring initiatives, a 5% increase in federal contracts set asides for small dis

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program Now Closed

SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans provided nearly $800 billion dollars of crucial financial support to over 8.5 million businesses and nonprofit organizations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the proverb goes, “all good things must come to an end.” SBA closed the PPP doors to new loan guaranty applications at the end of May 2021 and released a closing statement on the program’s success. On June 1, SBA Administrator, Isabella Casillas Guzman, released a statement

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

DoD Proposes DFARS Amendment to Enhance Debriefings

Receiving a notice that a competitor received an award can be a punch to the gut. This feeling is compounded when the requested debriefing is short on details. Offerors are normally left with more questions than answers. The DoD has proposed to amend the DFARS to enhance debriefings in certain procurements. The correct amount of information in a debriefing is an ever-moving target; hopefully, this new proposed amendment will be a step in the right direction. We posted back in 2018 wh

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

The CIO-SP4 RFP Allows Broad Past Performance Information–But Does It Go Too Far?

One of my major concerns with the draft solicitation for the CIO-SP4 GWAC was the limited nature of the past performance NITAAC intended to consider. Under the draft RFP, NITAAC would not have considered the past performance of subcontractors–something I believed violated 13 C.F.R. 125.2(g) in certain cases, and was contrary to the guidance of FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iii), which says that agencies “should” consider the past performance of “subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

SmallGovCon Week In Review: May 24-28

As we prepare for a long Memorial Day weekend, let us not forget to honor and thank all those that have served and continue to serve our country. Memorial Day is a day of reflection for those that have come before us and paved the way for our sacred freedoms that are often taken for granted. A big thank you to all of our veterans and active duty military. We see you, we honor you and we appreciate you greatly. Thank you for your service. “As we express our gratitude we must never forget that

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Debriefing Exception to Protest Timeliness Rule Doesn’t Apply to SBIR Procurements, Period

Equitus Corporation was sure it was following the right procedures when it requested a debriefing after receiving a letter stating its proposal under an Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) solicitation had been rejected. The Air Force even provided the debriefing as requested, and Equitus filed a protest less than 10 days later. However, they made an easy-to-miss but crucial error that resulted in dismissal of their protest. In Equitus Corp., B-419701 (May 12, 2021) the A

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

The “Three-in-Two” SBA Joint Venture Rule is Partly Gone–Now It’s Time to Get Rid of the Rest

Last year, SBA made joint venturing a little easier by relaxing the so-called “three-in-two” rule. But the “two-year” portion of the rule still exists–and in my view, the rule continues to unfairly elevate form over substance. SBA, it’s time to take the plunge, and get rid of the rest of the three-in-two joint venture rule. The three-in-two joint venture rule went through a few iterations in its lifetime. But in its most recent form before SBA’s 2020 amendment, the rule said that w

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

New HUBZone Program Guidance Sheds Light on Principal Office Long-Term Investment Rules

The HUBZone Program has released updated FAQs that provide guidance on important HUBZone rules and how SBA will be interpreting them. While these don’t have the authority of a regulation, the new guidance shows how SBA will come down on certain HUBZone questions that aren’t answered in the regulations. These include the details on long-term investment in a principal office as well as a few other rules. Read on for how SBA will interpret these rules. SBA originally released guidance in Fe

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 17-21

It’s been a very soggy week in the Midwest and we are looking forward to our normal sunny weather here in Lawrence, Kansas. We hope you are staying dry and the sun is shining bright in your neck of the woods. There has been a lot of activity in federal government contracting news this week including more big announcements for small businesses and federal government contractors concerning the latest executive orders on cybersecurity requirements. The SBA made an announcement about expanding H

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Agency Not Required to Hunt Down and Investigate Bad Publicity, Says GAO

In a recent decision, GAO said that it is not the contracting agency’s job to play investigator when it comes to publicly available negative past performance information. GAO acknowledged that there may be certain situations where the agency is required to consider such information that it is aware of during its evaluation. But according to GAO, this denied protest involved no such situation. GAO’s decision in Cotton & Company, LLP, B-418380.4 (March 10, 2021), involved the National

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

$15 Minimum Wage Coming to Federal Contracting in 2022

Beginning January 30, 2022, all prime contractors and subcontractors doing work on a government contract will be required to pay workers at least $15 per hour, based on a recent executive order. The executive order does not stop there, beginning in 2023 the wage will go up annually. When can we expect formal guidance to come out, and what other items are found in the text? The executive order itself takes effect immediately, but don’t expect to hear any specifics until later this y

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

NAICS Code Challenges Must Show why the Code Chosen is Incorrect, OHA Says

We’ve all seen cases of agencies assigning NAICS codes to solicitations that just seem…off. But, unless a contractor can show that the code chosen was clearly erroneous, government contractors will simply have to make do with what they’ve been given. The OHA recently handed down a decision confirming this. The decision concerned an Army Request for Proposals No. W91QEX-21-R-0003 issued in February 2021. A 100% set-aside for 8(a) participants, the contracting officer assigned the soli

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Solicitation Omits NAICS Code and Size Standard–But Agency Still Rejects Large Business’s Bid

An offeror’s bid was rejected because the offeror wasn’t a small business–even though the solicitation didn’t contain a NAICS code or corresponding size standard. It sounds like a successful bid protest waiting to happen, but GAO didn’t see it that way. Instead, GAO dismissed the protest because the offeror should have protested the defective solicitation terms before it submitted its bid, instead of waiting to see how the competition played out. GAO’s decision in M R Pittman Group

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 10-14, 2021

This week on the blog we continue to bring you coverage of federal government contracting news as government agencies search for solutions to cyber security challenges and, in response, contractors enhance their own cyber defenses. Here are a several other happenings in federal government contracting news for this week, including an announcement from Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, announcing the latest application data results for the

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

COFC Examines Small Business Size Recertification After Merger or Sale

A recent Court of Federal Claims decision examined the impact on the award to a small business when that small business is acquired, after proposal submission but before award, by a large business. In doing so, the court looked very closely at the FAR clauses incorporated into the solicitation by reference, versus those that are incorporated in full text. The decision in HWI Gear, Inc. v. United States, No. 20-930, 2020 WL 7706975 (2020) reviewed a Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) award fo

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

CIO-SP4 Postponed (Again) But Final Signature Expected Next Week

NITAAC’s Acting Director Brian Goodger released an update on the long awaited CIO-SP4 Request for Proposals (RFP) today. He provided some insight as to the delays in the RFP’s release and assured everyone that they expect the last signature on the final RFP next week. For those who don’t know, NITAAC (the NIH Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center) is an office of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It was design

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Late Quotation? No Protest: Protester who Submitted Quotation Late is Not Interested Party, per GAO

You submit a quotation after the given solicitation deadline. The solicitation includes a provision stating, in part, that late submissions will not be considered, but the Contracting Officer (CO) evaluates your quotation anyway. The CO goes with another contractor, and you submit a protest. After all, the CO evaluated your bid, you have an interest in the matter, right? Per the GAO, you don’t, and your protest will be dismissed. D B Systems (DBS) learned this the hard way. On July 2

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

GAO: Unequal Exchanges With Offerors by Agency Leads to Sustained Protest

An agency providing an opportunity to substantially revise a proposal can seem too good to be true. And sometimes, it is. It is a fundamental principle of procurement law that offerors must be treated equally. When one offeror is given an opportunity to “fix” the deficiencies in its proposal, but the other offeror is not, that is fundamentally unfair. As one offeror found out, despite submitting everything to the agency as it was asked, GAO still sustained the protest. In GAO’s decis

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Small GovCon Week in Review: May 3-7, 2021

It will be a great weekend to celebrate Mother’s Day and show all those hard working moms out there some appreciation. We hope you can get out and enjoy the wonderful spring weather and make the day special for the mothers in your life. As a wise person once said: “A Mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.” – Cardinal Mermillod. For those moms who are into federal contracts, and all others in the contracting world, here’s what’s happening

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

Five Things You Should Know: Past Performance of Subcontractors, Joint Venture Partners, and Affiliates

The government’s hard shift away from lowest-price, technically acceptable evaluations has magnified the importance of past performance in many competitive acquisitions. For start-ups and other companies new to the federal marketplace, past performance requirements can present a significant barrier to success. Oftentimes, companies with little or no past performance of their own can offer the past performance of another entity, such as a subcontractor or joint venture partner. But the rule

Koprince Law LLC

Koprince Law LLC

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