With July 4th around the corner, we wanted to remind everyone of the government contracting opportunities available to our nation’s veterans, including the SDVOSB Program. In this video, I cover how the SDVOSB Program has changed over time and how it works now:
If you are a veteran in need of assistance with government contracting matters, check out how we can help here.
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I’m pleased to announce that my forthcoming Koprince Law LLC GovCon Handbook, entitled Procedures and Pitfalls of Size Protests and Appeals, will be published through Amazon on July 28! In addition, I’ll be hosting an accompanying webinar through Koprince Law on August 5.
If you’ve had questions about size protests and appeals, and how to prepare for them, this is the book for you. It will cover the basic (and advanced) strategies and tips that will help your company put itself in the best
This week, the dust cloud coming to US shores could bring some negative impacts to certain parts of the country, but it could also result in more vivid sunsets and sunrises. There’s often a silver lining but it can take a while to figure out what it is sometimes.
There were also some big impacts and silver linings in the world of federal government contracting this past week. These included an increase in the ceiling of the 8(a) STARS II GWAC, some rumblings from the Pandemic Oversight Commi
Participating as a witness in a Congressional hearing is among the highlights of my career. It was an honor to be selected to provide insight on the Defense Production Act and its utilization of America’s small business base.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by the Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure to participate in a virtual hearing addressing the utilization of small businesses in Defense Production Act procurements. I was asked to provide testimony about the Defense
Some contractors mistakenly believe that debriefings or post-debriefing questions always extend the deadline for filing a protest with GAO. In some cases they do, but in others they don’t. In cases where they don’t, a protester must file its protest within 10 days of knowing the basis for its protest. Otherwise, GAO will dismiss the protest as untimely, without any regards to the protest’s merits.
Let’s examine the sad tale of a recent protester in Centerra Integrated Facilities Services
The Trade Agreements Act (or TAA) is applicable to a wide array of federal government contracts. Wondering how it might apply to you? In this video, I describe the TAA and how it applies to federal contractors:
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Joint ventures and small business subcontracting are two issues near and dear to the hearts of many small business federal contractors. Well, the Federal Acquisition Regulation will soon be updated with respect to both of these topics. The new rules will align with SBA’s rules and remove any inconsistencies. Let’s dive in!
Joint Ventures
It has taken nearly four years for the FAR joint venture rules to be updated, but it’s good that they will be. The proposed FAR rule on joint ventur
Happy Juneteenth to our SmallGovCon readers! And Happy Father’s Day as well. The next few days can be a time to reflect on the state of our nation. And to say thanks to a father or father figure.
If you need a new podcast to check out, my colleague Haley Claxton was recently featured on an episode of the The Big Bid Theory podcast. The episode just came out and is full of helpful information about set-asides for small business contractors. Give it a listen!
This week saw some interesting
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
All of us Koprince Law are experts in the field of government contracting. But Senior Associate Ian Patterson has now been recognized by Congress for his prowess in the field, as he will testify before Congress on June 24. Read on for the details on this exciting event.
Ian will provide expert testimony before the House of Representative’s Small Business Committee at a hearing entitled An Overview of the Dynamic Between the Defense Production Act and Small Contractors held by the Subcomm
We here at Koprince Law have been seeing a lot of GAO bid protests lately, but for those of you unfamiliar with the Government Accountability Office and what it means to file a bid protest, this video is for you:
For more information, check out our helpful Handbook or, if you need assistance filing your GAO Protest, learn more about how we can help here.
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GAO recently awarded the reasonable costs of filing and pursuing a protest to an agency’s evaluation and award decision, after finding that the agency unduly delayed corrective action in response to a clearly meritorious protest. Let’s take a look.
Markit! Forestry Management, LLC–Costs, B-417910.3 (Apr 7, 20200), involved a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service solicitation for vegetation removal and silvicultural treatments for national forests in and around the Rocky Mountain
Happy Friday and welcome to another addition of the SmallGovCon Week in Review. Mark your calendars as my colleagues will be providing government contracting insights in multiple forums in the next few weeks. And, of course, there are some interesting updates from the world of federal contracting this past week.
Matthew Moriarty (along with other esteemed guests) will be speaking on the topic of CMMC – Cybersecurity Status on Jun 23, 2020 from 8:15 – 9 am central. You can register here.
A GAO protest can rest on a number of different grounds. One of the most fertile, however, is disparate treatment. That is, GAO is particularly sensitive to arguments that a procuring agency wasn’t even-handed in evaluating the same features or omissions in competing proposals.
Disparate treatment was the theme in a recently sustained GAO protest: Battelle Memorial Institute, B-418047.3 et al. (Comp. Gen. May 18, 2020). In the underlying procurement issued through a task order on the O
Newly passed changes to the Paycheck Protection Program are designed to make it easier for small businesses to have their loans forgiven.
The Paycheck Protection Program has been around since the end of March and provides funds for small businesses to retain employees and keep operating during the global coronavirus pandemic. If used properly, the business should have all or a portion of the loan forgiven. The new law eases some of the restrictions on how that money can be spent.
C
In a recent YouTube video, we discussed how the federal government calculates business size. Today’s video provides additional information on how to calculate the size of your business through annual receipts:
For more information, check out Volume 2 of the Koprince Law, LLC GovCon Handbooks Series, SBA Small Business Size and Affiliation Rules, or contact us here.
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Attorney-client privilege is a cornerstone of the American legal system. It protects conversations between an attorney and their client from disclosure during litigation. The goal of this protection is to allow an attorney to provide the best representation possible by protecting client communications from being later leveraged during litigation. Sometimes, however, invocation of attorney-client privilege protections can be complicated by required disclosures. But federal contractors are require
Hope everyone is having a nice Friday. For those with questions about teaming arrangements, joint ventures, or the All-Small Mentor Protege Program, be sure to check out an upcoming event: on June 16, my colleague Matthew Schoonover will be presenting on all three at the Iowa PTAC & Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island Partnership Event online.
This week saw some intriguing updates in the government contracting world. For one, GAO released its snapshot on government spending for fiscal y
Federal agencies will be issuing a final rule that will remove the infamous nondisplacement of qualified workers clause from the FAR. The final rule goes into effect June 5, 2020. Let’s take a look.
The new rule, issued May 6, 2020, implements Executive Order 13897, “Improving Federal Contractor Operations by Revoking Executive Order 13495” (published in the Federal Register on November 5, 2019, at 84 FR 59709), which we previously blogged about.
The prior Executive Order, through
The framework for the DOD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) process continues to move forward. Here’s an update on what’s currently happening with the CMMC that includes a few more details the DOD and the independent CMMC Accreditation Body have recently released about the nuts and bolts of the certification process.
As explored in prior posts (such as this one), the CMMC standards were put in place to protect Controlled Unclassified Information held by defense contrac
On July 15th, big changes are coming to the SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business program certification process! We’ve discussed the changes in depth here, here, and here, but if you’re looking for the highlight reel, this video is for you:
If you have questions about WOSB certification, let’s chat!
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Last month, the SBA moved to edit its regulations, taking a red pen to its current rules governing Small Disadvantaged Businesses (or SDBs), as described in the Federal Register. This blog post will highlight what the new rule will mean for current SDBs—and how businesses can become eligible for SDB subcontractor status under the new rule. While the SDB program is still alive and kicking, the rules will be simplified to eliminate a lot of language that is simply no longer applicable.
Why
As we end May and roll into June, rainy weather has descended on the Midwest. But there’s always sunshine around the corner. In our case, around the corner will be this weekend as the Kansas City region is scheduled to have sunny skies.
This week saw plenty of interesting stories in the federal contracting world, including a false claims settlement related misrepresenting use of a small disadvantaged business, a new Department of Labor office aims to help federal contractors comply with ru
Let’s suppose that you just received a new solicitation hot off the press. As you peruse it, you find a requirement that you believe is too onerous or unnecessary. So you contemplate filing a GAO protest to challenge that term. Before doing so, be sure that you’re an “interested party” under GAO’s regulations. Well, I filed a protest, you say, doesn’t that ipso facto make me an interested party? Short answer: no.
In a pre-award protest context, it’s important to bear this principle in mi
As our regular readers know, a GAO protest challenging an agency’s evaluation decision must be filed within 10 days from the date the protester knew (or should have known) of the protest grounds, or within 10 days from the date the protester receives its debriefing (but only if the debriefing was required and timely requested). 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(2).
But sometimes, an agency might give an offeror a reason to protest before it makes its official award determination. In that case, should the o
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