The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act created the Paycheck Protection Program as one tool to help small businesses. But it also provided for additional emergency funds under the SBA’s existing Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. Congress appropriated $10 billion for the program. Here are some of the main details on this program.
The CARES Act expands and modifies the existing EIDL program in a number of important ways. The existing loan rules, unless mo
As previously foreshadowed and discussed in depth, October 1, 2016, marked the date in which unsuccessful offerors lost the ability to challenge most task order awards issued by civilian agencies.
Although the GAO remains able to hear protests relating to DoD task orders exceeding $10 million, two recent GAO decisions impose an important limitation: GAO does not have jurisdiction to consider awards issued by DoD under a multiple-award contract operated by a civilian agency.
By way of backgro
The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act establishes a preference for the DoD to use fixed-price contracts, and will require executive approval of cost reimbursement procedures for certain high-dollar procurements.
Section 829 of the 2017 NDAA is titled, quite simply, “Preference for Fixed-Price Contracts.” Section 829 specifies that, within 180 days after the 2017 NDAA is enacted, the DFARS are to be revised to establish a preference for fixed-price contracts (including fixed-price incent
A North Carolina couple is heading to prison after being convicted of defrauding the SDVOSB and 8(a) Programs.
According to a Department of Justice press release, Ricky Lanier was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison and his wife, Katrina Lanier, was sentenced to 30 months for their roles in a long-running scheme to defraud two of the government’s cornerstone socioeconomic contracting programs.
According to the DOJ press release, Ricky Lanier was the former owner of an 8(a) company. Whe
Lately, my kids have been asking me to “do the honors” when they ask me to do something. At first, I thought this was a cute and very polite way to ask for something. Then I realized they were going to use it for everything. Will you do the honor of getting me some water? Will you do the honor of starting a show for us? It started to get kind of old and make me feel not so honorable. But their intention was good.
So, with that inspiration, will you do the honor of reading this week’s round-u
After a lovely weekend, temperatures have again dropped here in Lawrence. A quick Google search, however, tells me that a certain groundhog didn’t see his shadow last week, so here’s hoping we all get warmer temperatures soon . . . .
In the meantime, let’s warm our hearts with the latest government contracting news. Today we look at how the Pentagon plans to use the cloud and protect itself while doing so, how several companies survived the shutdown as they look toward another, and the mill
SBA’s regulations provide that an 8(a) program participant that no longer is owned or controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged person can be terminated from the 8(a) program. But the decision to terminate is not one to be made lightly: SBA must make sure that it not only has evidence in support of its termination decision, it must also explain how that evidence demonstrates its conclusions.
This requirement was at issue in a recent court decision that found an SBA 8(a) program term
An agency acted improperly by inviting the ultimate contract awardee to revise its pricing, but not affording that same opportunity to a competitor–even though the awardee didn’t amend its pricing in response to the agency’s invitation.
According to a recent GAO bid protest decision, merely providing the awardee the opportunity to amend its pricing was erroneous, regardless of whether the awardee took advantage of that opportunity.
The GAO’s decision in Rotech Healthcare, Inc., B-41302
An offeror with a “relatively weak proposal” can nonetheless file a size protest challenging the small business eligibility of the prospective awardee, provided that the protester was not found technically unacceptable or otherwise incapable of being selected for award.
In a recent size appeal decision, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals held that the mere fact that the protester was evaluated as “less than satisfactory” on four out of five non-price factors did not justify dismissing the p
This winter’s first polar vortex is upon us, and although much of the country has been getting hit with snow, Kansas has managed to stay mostly snow free with temperatures centered around a balmy 30 degrees. As the vortex sweeps its way out, we are looking to get our first dose of really cold weather with lows in the teens this weekend. Weekends like this are perfect to spend time with family and daydream about being on a beach–or anyplace that does not require 10+ minutes of preparation just to
When an agency competes a task order under a multiple-award contract, the agency must assign the task solicitation a NAICS code set forth in the underlying MAC.
As demonstrated in a recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals decision, when the MAC is assigned a single NAICS code, all task orders competed under that MAC will also be assigned that NAICS code–even if a prospective offeror believes that a different NAICS code will best describe the principal purpose of the task order acquisition.
Spring has definitely sprung here in Lawrence. The red buds are blooming everywhere. As many of us are working from home, it’s interesting to see a different view out of the window as we wait for the time when we can return to the office.
But, in the mean time, we’re still providing incisive posts and updates for our government contractor readers. This week saw a number of intriguing stories about how COVID-19 is affecting contractors, as well as other updates, including potential relief fo
We have been hard a work all week long here at Koprince Law and are ready to take advantage of the Labor Day weekend. Not only is it a long weekend, but it is also the start of the college football season. There is nothing better than football, tailgating and cooler weather to get you in the mood for fall (although our local Kansas Jayhawks haven’t exactly been tearing up the gridiron in recent years).
Before you head out the door to enjoy the holiday weekend, it’s time for the SmallGovCon Week
When multiple unsuccessful offerors protest a solicitation, the GAO ordinarily will dismiss any and all bid protests associated with the procurement in the event one unsuccessful offeror takes its case to federal court–even if some protesters would prefer to remain at the GAO.
As one federal contractor recently learned in Colleague Consulting, LLC—Reconsideration, B-413156.18 (Sept. 12, 2016), the GAO’s jurisdictional rules prevent it from deciding protests when the outcome of the protest could
Beyond set-aside procurements, the government bolsters small businesses by encouraging their participation in federally-funded research. Two key programs exist: the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. Ultimately, the government hopes that participating small businesses will commercialize technologies developed with federal research dollars. While the two programs are similar, a key feature distinguishes them: the STTR Progr
The SBA plans to issue a proposed rule consolidating the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program and the 8(a) Mentor-Protégé Program.
According to a recent SBA publication in the Federal Register, the SBA has had a change of heart about whether it is necessary to run two similar mentor-protégé programs–one for everybody, and another only for 8(a) firms.
When the SBA created the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program in 2016, the SBA purposely left in place the existing 8(a) Mentor-Protégé Program. At th
A quick update on a proposed FAR rule that will put in place restrictions on use of lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) solicitations in non-DOD agencies, as mandated in the 2019 NDAA. There are a few differences from the similar rule that recently went into effect for DOD.
The proposed rule implements the 2019 NDAA’s policy to avoid LPTA “in circumstances that would deny the Government the benefits of cost and technical tradeoffs in the source selection process.” It applies only
In its evaluation of proposals, a procuring agency gave a challenger a strength for proposing to recruit incumbent employees, but didn’t give the incumbent contractor a strength–even though the incumbent contractor proposed to retain the very same people.
Unsurprisingly, the GAO found that the evaluation was unequal, and sustained the incumbent’s protest.
The GAO’s decision in SURVICE Engineering Company, LLC, B-414519 (July 5, 2o17) involved an Air Force solicitation for engineering, progra
The Department of Energy has joined the ranks of government agencies aligning part of its respective small business regulations with the SBA.
The DOE has issued a class deviation expanding the pool of companies eligible to be proteges under the DOE mentor-protege program. This deviation comes almost 20 years after DOE first published guidelines for its formal DOE mentor-protégé program and almost three years after SBA formally established a government-wide mentor-protégé program.
DO
Hope everyone had a great Halloween yesterday! Around these parts, the thermometer got down to freezing last night. But I took the kids out for a quick trick-or-treat outing down the street. And we also had some fun painting pumpkins in the office.
Amidst all the spooky fun, the government contracting news kept rolling in. This week, we highlight updates about supply chain cybersecurity, DOD modernizing software development, and the Pentagon announcing a big push to incorporate 5G technolog
February of 2020 seems like a long time ago, for many reasons. But that was when the official version of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) standards were released. Recently, the DoD issued an interim rule that will update the DFARS to implement the assessment methodology and CMMC framework for DoD procurements as well as add a new requirement for cybersecurity assessment under the NIST SP 800-171 framework. Here are some of the key points.
The interim rule will be eff
Many GAO protests can hinge on fairly minute details that render a proposal unacceptable. A recent GAO case is a reminder that a contractor’s GSA Federal Supply Schedule must have sufficient duration to cover the period of performance for a blanket purchase agreement or the contractor may be ineligible for award.
In GBK Partnership, LLC-Constant Associates, Inc., B-417039 (Comp. Gen. Jan. 24, 2019), GAO considered the EPA’s RFQ to establish a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) under the
It’s a rainy Friday here in Lawrence—the perfect type of weather to either take a nap or read something interesting. Because we can’t do the former, we’ll settle on the latter.
In this edition of the Week In Review, we’ll look at a list of the largest government contractors, a new secure cloud, and more examples of #govcon personnel behaving badly.
Have a great weekend!
DoD testing secure cloud to help small contractors protect data. [FederalNewsNetwork]
Ex-Army colonel pleads gui
You’ve served your country with pride. Now, as a government contractor, it’s only fair that you get your piece of the pie. Here are five things you should know about the government’s contracting programs for veteran-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses:
What is a veteran-owned small business?
As its name implies, a veteran-owned small business (or VOSB, in government-contracting speak) is a small business that is at least 51% unconditionally owned and
Historically, Uncle Sam has struggled to meet its WOSB contracting goals. It wasn’t until 2015, in fact, that the government first met its WOSB contracting goal and, since then, has continued to struggle to meet it.
Thankfully, agencies are authorized to use set-asides and sole-source awards to increase WOSB participation. But as a recent GAO decision shows, an agency isn’t required to use either procedure.
At issue in EDWOSB Transformer Services, B-416683 (Oct. 15, 2018), was a solicitation
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