Source selection decisions are often a point of contention for federal government contractors, and rightfully so. Contractors spend large amounts of time and resources putting together a bid in a competition that likely doesn’t have room to make an award to each bidder. This usually results in one or more awardees, as well as one or more disappointed bidders. Naturally, those disappointed bidders often question whether the agency’s source selection decision, and its method for getting there, was
We at SmallGovCon have explored some examples of protests where an unfortunate oversight by a contractor has been the difference between winning and losing. This, of course, can be very frustrating to contractors, especially considering that federal agencies often get leeway where contractors wouldn’t. But federal agencies, too, make mistakes, and even simple ones can be enough for a successful protest. This was the case in a January 2023 decision by GAO.
In June 2021, the Secret Service
The government contracting legal landscape has gone through many important changes in 2022 and the first part of 2023, including new small business rules, SDVOSB certification requirements, recent domestic preference changes under the Buy American Act, key provisions of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act and other laws passed in 2022, and much more. In this session, we will provide a comprehensive update on the most important government contracting legal changes in 2022, and the projec
Happy Friday, Readers! Can you believe that February is almost over? I guess that means we are one month closer to Spring. Stay safe if you are in the areas of the country getting pounded by more snowfall. In the middle of the country, the thermometer has been going up and down so much on a daily basis, we just never know what we will get. That’s Kansas for you.
We have included a few news articles on the federal government contracting issues this week. There is some good thoughts this we
SBA, without much commentary, recently removed the so-called reasonable commute requirement for service-disabled veterans (SDV) who owned or managed service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB). This rule used to require that veterans live near the principal office or job site, but it sometimes caused issues for SDVOSBs because of how restrictive it could be. Thankfully, SBA has removed this requirement. Since SBA brought little attention to this change, we want to highlight it in th
This month, SBA issued a final rule updating its size standards for multiple NAICS codes in the manufacturing industries and industries with employee-based size standards in other sectors (except wholesale trade and retail trade). As the final rule explains in great detail, SBA increased some of the NAICS code’s size standards and retained others. Additionally, SBA decided to retain an employee based size standard for the nonmanufacturer rule. Let’s take a closer look.
Under this final r
The government contracting legal landscape has gone through many important changes in 2022 and the first part of 2023, including new small business rules, SDVOSB certification requirements, recent domestic preference changes under the Buy American Act, key provisions of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act and other laws passed in 2022, and much more.
In this session, John Holtz and I, will provide a comprehensive update on the most important government contracting legal changes in 2
The government contracting legal landscape has gone through many important changes in 2022 and the first part of 2023, including new small business rules, SDVOSB certification requirements, recent domestic preference changes under the Buy American Act, and much more. In this session we will provide a comprehensive update on the most important government contracting legal changes. This is a “no-cost” Training. Register here.
The post UTSA Apex Accelerator Webinar: Government Contracts Legal U
Happy Friday and happy belated Valentine’s Day. We hope you had a great week and found some time to celebrate with your loved ones. We have certainly been in celebration mode with the Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl on Sunday. What an exciting game and what a great season!
There was a lot of news from the federal government contracting world this week, as well. We have included a few articles that we hope will be of interest to you below, including those on small business contract
Last month, the Department of Defense (DoD), released a memorandum to its contracting specialists asking them to utilize the popular but controversial category management tactics to attempt to increase small business participation in DoD procurements. Some have said that category management tends to decrease small business spend by, for instance, pushing procurement to larger contracting vehicles, so this memo attempts to turn conventional wisdom on its head. The DoD’s intentions with this memor
Whether we want to or not, the country will continue to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for years to come in a multitude of ways. Many actions were taken by the government in the early days to help United States’ citizens through the largely unprecedented times, particularly to help support small businesses. As I’m sure many small business owners would say, the assistance offered through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program was crit
Happy Friday, Readers! We hope you had a great week and are looking forward to a fun Super Bowl Sunday. If you aren’t a Chiefs or Eagles fan, there’s always the food and halftime show to look forward to! Enjoy the weekend.
This week in federal government contracting saw an interesting perspective on contracting law and national power, new cloud computing and IT policies and initiatives, and AI potentially helping to write contracts.
Government Contracts Law as an Instrument o
SAM.gov, short for System for Award Management, is the entry point for federal contractors to interface with the government. So, it is a basic starting point for every federal contractor. But your SAM.gov profile also needs to stay up to date and be up to date at time of bid submission, and failure to keep your SAM profile active can cause problems, even for established contractors. Everyone involved with government contracting knows, or should know, a little bit about registration in SAM.gov.
The SBA took over certification of service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses and veteran-owned small businesses on January 1, 2023. Soon, all companies will require an SBA certification to qualify as an SDVOSB or VOSB.
In this course, Govology Faculty Instructor, Legal Analyst & retired founder of Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC, Steven Koprince offers a plain-English look at eligibility under the new SBA certification program. The webinar will cover the SBA’s often-misunderstood “
For small businesses and their teammates, few government contracting topics are as confusing as the limitations on subcontracting (LoS) for set-aside and socioeconomic sole-source contracts. And if that isn’t stressful enough, the “LoS” is an area of heavy enforcement: get it wrong, and a contractor can face major penalties.
In this webinar, John Holtz and I will help you make sense of the limitations on subcontracting to help ensure that you understand and comply with this essential rule. P
Happy Friday, Readers! Hope you have been having a great week and a great start to February! Around these parts, we’re getting geared up for another exciting Super Bowl with our hometown Chiefs and the anticipation is building.
We hope you had a great week and our looking forward to a very nice weekend. We have included a few articles of interest concerning federal government contracting below. Of special note is a new contract management standard and a priority for small business engagemen
Late 2022, the president signed a law that would increase what contractors have to reveal about potential organizational conflicts of interest. The law is called the Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act. Below, we highlight some of the main things contractors should out look for based on this new law.
The law was signed on December 27, 2022 to enhance the rules for organizational conflicts of interest (OCI). It was hailed by its bipartisan authors a
We are excited to announce that Gregory Weber and his wife, Melissa, along with big brother Isaac, have a new family member! Gabriel Weber was born on January 17, 2023, weighing 7lbs. 13 oz. Everyone is doing well.
Congratulations Weber family!
The post A Very Joyful Announcement from Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC! first appeared on SmallGovCon - Government Contracts Law Blog.View the full article
The SBA’s HUBZone Program, short for “Historically Underutilized Business Zone,” is likely the SBA program that we hear the least about. Tucked away in Title 13, Section 126 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, the HUBZone Program gives HUBZone participants benefits in multiple federal government contracting situations in an effort to revitalize historically underutilized business zones through increased employment opportunities, investments, and economic development. So, what exactly makes
In federal procurement law, it is often the case that decisions on protests and other cases come down to tough questions of law that could go either way, requiring the judge to carefully weigh the reasons for making ruling one way or another. Unfortunately, there are also cases where the decision can rest entirely on responding to a request, even one that gives the contractor little time to respond. Regardless of the situation, it can’t be overstated how crucial it is to respond timely to any re
Happy Friday, Readers. The Kansas City Chiefs secured another win on Saturday and have moved forward into the AFC Championship game. I think everyone in town had on their Chiefs gear last weekend. It was a sea of red. With temperatures predicted to be in the 20’s on Sunday, it will be a cold one in Kansas City for the big game! Brr.
We hope you had a great week and can grab a game or two this weekend and root for your favorite team. We have included some noteworthy articles below on federal
This Congressional report, issued December 27, 2022, provides a “discussion of acquisition flexibilities federal agencies may use to facilitate the government’s response to and recovery from disasters and emergencies.” The report explains the various types of flexibilities and some of the pros and cons of each. And it concludes by identifying several significant issues related to these acquisition flexibilities. Let’s take a look.
As the report states:
The report explains that
You’ve served your country with pride. Now, as a government contractor, it’s only fair that you get your piece of the pie. Previously, we here at SmallGovCon have discussed the 5 things you should know regarding SDVOSBs and VOSBs. But in the years since that, much has changed in the world of SDVOSBs and VOSBs. So here are five updated basics you should know about the government’s contracting program for veteran-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses:
Happy Friday Readers. We hope you all have had a great week. We are enjoying some milder winter weather here in Kansas and received some much-needed rain. We still have a bit to go before spring, so hopefully we will get a little snow still this winter.
Enjoy the weekend and we also hope you will enjoy reading the articles below, regarding federal government contracting this week, including what small business contractors can look for in 2023.
SBA Administrator Guzman: New Census D
In late 2022, Congress passed and the President signed a law that aims to make it easier for Small Business Contractors to track down small business compliance information for the wide range of agencies involved in government contracting, that are currently housed somewhere within each specific agency’s website. In this post, SmallGovCon reviews this law, and through it, can examine with our readers where you can currently find the many resources available for small business issues at federal ag
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