For large and small contractors alike, teaming agreements, joint venture agreements, and subcontracts can be essential to winning and successfully performing federal government contracts. In this three-part series, government contracts attorneys Nicole Pottroff and John Holtz will explain how to develop, negotiate and administer agreements that are both compliant and effective. The presentations will cover both the key rules (such as flow-downs and ostensible subcontractor affiliation) and best
GAO’s jurisdiction to hear protests of certain civilian task and delivery orders has been restored.
On December 15, 2016, the President signed the 2016 GAO Civilian Task and Delivery Order Protest Authority Act (the “ 2016 Act”) into law. The 2016 Act restores GAO’s recently-expired jurisdiction to hear protests of civilian task and delivery orders valued in excess of $10 million.
As we recently blogged about here at SmallGovCon, the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act also restores GAO
Thinking about hiring an employee of the incumbent contractor for your next bid? If so, make sure to protect yourself from disqualification based on an organizational conflict of interest (“OCI”).
In a recent bid protest by Archimedes’ Global, Inc., (“Archimedes”), the GAO reversed the Government’s decision to exclude Archimedes from consideration for a bid when an alleged OCI was based on mere innuendo and supposition instead of hard facts supported by the record.
Pursuant to FAR 9.505, certa
The current COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the federal government to take drastic measures. It has altered many aspects of federal contracting for contractors and agencies alike. During these trying times, agencies also have the authority to streamline some contracting procedures. Let’s take a look.
FAR part 18 provides “acquisition flexibilities” that are available to contracting officers for emergency acquisitions. What are acquisition flexibilities, you ask? They are “specific techni
I am very pleased to announce that Jennifer Tucker has joined our team of authors here at SmallGovCon. Jennifer is an associate attorney at Koprince Law LLC, where her practice focuses on federal government contracts law. Before joining Koprince Law LLC, Jennifer practiced contracts law with the Kansas Department of Transportation and the University of Kansas. Jennifer also had the fortune (or is that misfortune?) of being classmates with a certain other government contracts attorney in the 2
An agency’s oral advice, given at a pre-proposal conference, did not amend the solicitation or legally bind the agency.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO reiterated that offerors rely on oral advice from agencies at their own risk–particularly when the oral advice in question appears to contradict the plain language of the solicitation.
GAO’s decision in Technology and Telecommunications Consultants, Inc., B-415029 (Oct. 16, 2017) involved an Air Force solicitation seeking IT service
The SBA recently issued a final rule concerning numerous aspects of small business contracting. In previous posts, we wrote about a few parts of the rule, including changes to the limitations on subcontracting. The new rule also clarifies some important facets of the rules governing subcontracting plans.
These rules are intended to make it easier to hold large business prime contractors accountable for meeting the goals of their small business subcontracting plans. By the same token, the
As many contractors have heard, the President declared a state of emergency under the Stafford Act. What will this mean for acquisitions conducted while the COVID-19 emergency continues? In this post, I’ll dig into some contractor-specific effects of that declaration: modifying the micro-purchase, simplified acquisition, and commercial purchase acquisition thresholds.
Here are the thresholds that will be increased for responsive supplies and services:
Micro-purchase thresholds–fro
NAICS code appeals are a useful tool in any small business
government contractor’s toolbox. If successful, an appeal can dramatically
change a procurement’s competitive landscape—either by limiting the pool of eligible
offerors, or expanding it.
Even still, NAICS code appeals are underutilized among contractors. So I wanted to take just a few minutes to walk through the basics of NAICS codes appeals, in case your business ever needs to file one.
Here are 5 Things You Should Know about N
I’m back in the office after a week-long family beach vacation around the 4th of July. Kudos to my colleagues here at Koprince Law for putting out last week’s SmallGovCon Week In Review while I was out having some fun in the sun.
This week’s edition of our weekly government contracts news roundup includes a prison term for an 8(a) fraudster, a Congressional focus on full implementation of the Supreme Court’s Kingdomware decision, the release of an important new FAR provision regarding small bu
Here at SmallGovCon HQ, we’re trying to withstand these last few weeks of winter as we hold out for spring. But in the mean time, our attorney authors will be speaking at some upcoming events. Matthew Schoonover will outline Developments in Small Business Contracting at a PubK Webinar on February 26 and also present on Size & Affiliation Issues for a Maryland PTAC Webinar on February 27.
In federal contracting news, there are some interesting highlights. Among them are reactions from co
An agency was justified in canceling a small business set-aside solicitation–and reissuing the solicitation on an unrestricted basis–where the agency determined that the prices offered by small businesses were too high.
In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO confirmed that while the FAR’s “rule of two” set-aside requirement provides a powerful and important preference for small businesses, it doesn’t require an agency to pay more than fair market value for products or services.
The GAO’s
The VA has adopted a Class Deviation to the VAAR, severely restricting the ability of VA Contracting Officers to request waivers of the nonmanufacturer rule–and, even more troubling, suggesting that Contracting Officers need not apply the statutory SDVOSB and VOSB preferences even when the SBA has already granted a class waiver.
You may be wondering “does the VA’s Class Deviation comply with Kingdomware?” Good question.
Before diving into the details of the Class Deviation, let’s step back
The DoD has issued a final rule making major changes in the DoD “Pilot” Mentor-Protege Program. The rule took effect on March 23, 2018.
Among the major changes, DoD has both expanded and contracted the universe of potential proteges–and has included a mandatory certification that seems to completely misunderstand the SBA’s joint venture rules and processes.
Here is my take on the good, the bad, and the ugly from the final rule.
The Good
Unlike the SBA’s mentor-protege program, the DoD men
The last days of summer are upon us and fall is right around the corner. Here in Lawrence, we’ve been getting a second round of tomatoes in local gardens and at the farmer’s market. It’s a great time for those of us that like to eat tomatoes. (Apologies to Tom Brady).
It’s also a great time for consumers of federal government contracting news, as there are some interesting tidbits this week. For instance, we’ve been hearing about the bribery charges for FEMA officials, examples of malicious
It’s hard to top last week’s government contracting news, which included the major SDVOSB Supreme Court victory in Kingdomware. But with the Fourth of July just a week and a half away, there is still plenty going on in the world of government contracts law.
In this week’s SmallGovCon Week in Review, an SDVOSB’s owner speaks out about his important GAO bid protest win, suspensions and debarments of government contractors dropped in 2015, major changes are coming to the GSA Schedule, HUBZone con
Recently, the SBA proposed big changes for its small business regulations, including some aspects of the 8(a) Program. This blog post is Part 4 in our coverage of these proposed SBA changes and will cover the SBA’s potential changes to the joint venture agreement approval process for 8(a) contracts (here are part 1, part 2, and part 3 of our coverage).
The SBA released a proposed rule on November 8, 2019 with the aim of streamlining its regulations. Among many other changes the SBA prop
NASA is going back to the moon and is looking for private companies to help get it there. In 2018, NASA awarded nine IDIQ Commercial Lunar Payload Service contracts for commercial payload delivery services between the Earth and the lunar surface. This is a sea-change for NASA as “no [United States] commercial company has ever attempted to launch, transit, and land” on the moon. Prior to award, NASA asked for task order proposals to include a description of risks and mitigation efforts. You might
We’ve discussed the “ostensible subcontractor rule” quite a few times on the blog (including most recently here and here) because it is one of the most frequent grounds for size protests. It’s also frequently misunderstood. A recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals decision, Contego Environmental, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-6054 (May 19, 2020), demonstrates how even SBA Area Offices can misapply the rule and provides useful reminders to contractor looking to avoid violating it.
As a refresher, t
CIO-SP4 proposals are now due August 3, 2021. Currently, seven bid protests have been filed with GAO. These amendments are now coming fast and furious. Amendment 6 went live on July 9, 2021, and 10 days later we have another new amendment. Below are some of the key changes in Amendment 7.
Overall, it seems like CIO-SP4 amendment 7 shoots first, and then attempts to aim. Here are some of the areas where it appears to miss the mark.
Section L.3.7.3. Section L.3.7.3, which is under the
Happy Friday, everybody! It’s that time of year: federal contractors are rushing to submit bids, with the hope of awards before the end of the fiscal year. So we hope that you’re all gearing up for a relaxing weekend.
Let’s get the weekend started off right with the SmallGovCon Week in Review. This week’s edition discusses the rush of contract awards at the end of the fiscal year, DOL’s renewed focus on disability hiring practices, federal contractors behaving badly, and more.
Have a great wee
Happy Valentine’s Day SmallGovCon readers! Hope you have a great one! And mark your calendar for February 26th, when Matthew Schoonover will be providing recent developments in small business contracting during an upcoming PubK webinar.
This week, we’re really loving some federal contracting updates, including a piece questioning the impact of enhanced debriefings, e-commerce supply chain risks, and a 57-month prison term for defrauding subcontractors on federal contracts to the tune of $3.7
I am pleased to announce that SmallGovCon is now being republished on what I think is the nation’s best and most venerable government contracting legal website: WIFCON.com. You can find us on WIFCON.com’s blogs page from now on (and, of course, right here at SmallGovCon.com).
I was probably less than a month into my first government contracts job (summer associate at a law firm based in Tysons Corner) when a more senior attorney recommended that I check out WIFCON.com. I’ve been following it
GAO sustained a protest recently where an agency had given higher past performance scores to a proposal with two relevant examples of past performance than a proposal with five relevant examples.
In Patricio Enterprises, Inc., B-412740 et al. (Comp. Gen. May 26, 2016), GAO said that an agency cannot mechanically apply an evaluation formula that produces an unreasonable result, such as allowing a proposal with fewer examples of relevant past performance to somehow earn a higher score than a prop
I hope that all of our readers had a happy Thanksgiving. The holiday season is in full swing here at Koprince Law LLC, where we have a festive tree in our lobby and holiday cookies in the kitchen.
But between holiday shopping and snacking, there is still plenty happening in the world of federal government contracts. Today, we have a special SmallGovCon “Weeks” in Review, beginning with stories from November 21. The latest news and commentary includes two different cases in which business own
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