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SmallGovCon Week in Review: November 18-22, 2024

Happy Friday, SmallGovCon readers and have a great Thanksgiving next week! We won’t be posting our weekly roundup next week due to the holiday, but we’ll catch up on any missed news the following week. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s federal contracting news. Also be sure to enjoy the family, friends, and food at your Thanksgiving table and maybe catch a football game. We will be back, with another edition of the week in review, in December. Some of the key stories this week including an

Update: SBA Proposed Rule Would Require “Rule of Two” Application to Multiple Award Contract Task and Delivery Orders (Part I)

SBA’s recently proposed rule seeks to officially broaden the reach of its “Rule of Two”–a government contracting requirement fundamental to supporting our nation’s small business infrastructure, policies, and goals. I emphasize “officially” because, even though this is technically a proposed change to SBA’s rules, it is really more of a “regulatory implementation” of judicial law than anything (don’t worry, we will go into more detail on this point later). Specially, SBA’s proposed rule would re

Webinar event: The SBA and DoD Mentor-Protégé Programs, December 3, 2024, hosted by Kansas APEX Accelerators

Please join us on December 3, 2024, 9:30-11:30am CST for this webinar event. Touted as a game-changer when it was first introduced in 2016, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s All Small Mentor-Protege Program isn’t new anymore. Known now as simply the SBA Mentor-Protege Program, it is still extremely useful for large and small contractors alike. Government contracts attorney Gregory Weber and Annie Birney of Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC will explain the ins and outs of the SBA Mentor-P

OHA: SBA VetCert Review of Bylaws Was too Strict

We have previously blogged on SBA OHA decisions where an applicant was denied certification in one of SBA’s socioeconomic programs because the applicant failed to meet SBA’s control requirements. (You can check out some recent posts here and here). These decisions served as friendly reminders that before submitting an application, future applicants should take a closer look at its governing documents for potential concerns SBA may raise in its review.   A recent OHA decision, however, sugges

SmallGovCon Week in Review; November 11-15, 2024

Happy Friday! We hope you had a great week and are looking forward to the weekend. We have had some beautiful Fall weather here in the Midwest and finally received some much needed rain. It’s hard to believe the holidays are right around the corner! Please visit SmallGovCon often for updates on the latest information in federal government contracting matters. We truly appreciate our readers and always strive to provide helpful content. Have a great weekend! This week in federal governme

Dialing Down: SAM Registration Not Constantly Required

As we’ve written about on the blog, protests have been decided because the offeror was not registered in SAM for the entirety of the proposal review process period. For instance, in this post, we discussed a GAO decision where GAO held that the FAR requires offerors to maintain SAM registration throughout the evaluation period, meaning from proposal submission to award of the contract. A COFC case came to the same conclusion. Well, the federal government didn’t like the result and has published

Veteran’s Day: Thank You for Your Service

Today, at SmallGovCon, we would like to take this opportunity to honor all the veterans and active-duty military for their service. The first celebration using the term Veterans Day occurred in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1947. Raymond Weeks, a World War II veteran, organized “National Veterans Day,” which included a parade and other festivities, to honor all veterans. The event was held on November 11, then designated Armistice Day. Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I in 1

Compensation for Professional Employees and You: GAO Sustains Where Agency Doesn’t Explain Why Proposed Decreased Compensation is Reasonable

While the federal government uses wage determinations for many occupations that contractors must abide by, things are different with professional occupations such as physicians, accountants, engineers, and (yours truly) attorneys. Contractors generally have more leeway with regard to how they pay their professional employees on a given contract. But it’s not unlimited. This is something that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) didn’t address in its evaluation for a procure

SmallGovCon Week in Review: November 4-8, 2024

Hello, blog readers! We want to extend a special thank you to all the veterans and active-duty military as we approach Veterans Day. Thank you for your service. Enjoy the weekend. It’s Friday and it’s time for another week in review. With the recent election behind us, the focus shifts to addressing major issues facing the new Congress. Also this week, SBA announced a record number of certifications for diverse-owned small businesses in FY24. SBA unveiled plans for a streamlined certificatio

Webinar Event: Legal Updates 2024 hosted by the Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship, November 20, 2024

The Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship is hosting this helpful, virtual workshop on Legal Updates 2024. In this webinar, government contracting attorneys, Nicole Pottroff and John Holtz will discuss the most important legal developments for federal contractors in 2024. Specifically, we will discuss important new small business rules, updates to the 8(a) rules and application procedures, joint venture changes, updated SDVOSB certification requirements, key provisions of the recen

SBA OHA: Operating Agreements Must Clearly Demonstrate Control

A recent appeal before the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) upheld SBA’s denial of an application for a veteran-owned small business because its operating agreement gave too much control to a non-veteran owner and failed to identify a veteran as the highest officer. The decision in Facekay LLC demonstrates the importance of strict adherence to the control requirements laid out by the various SBA programs. Facekay LLC, SBA No. VSBC-388-A (Sept. 3,

SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 28-November 1, 2024

Hello, Blog Readers and happy November! We hope you have had a productive month and are looking forward to finishing strong this year. It’s that time of year for looking at fall colors and going to the pumpkin patch, and handing out candy to trick or treaters. We hope you have a wonderful weekend and can get out a enjoy the fall weather in your neck of the woods. This week in federal government contracting NASA has announced a $1.8 billion COSMOS contract and tech giants are pushing for legi

Thank You, COFC Judicial Conference

I recently returned from the 35th Annual Judicial Conference for the Court of Federal Claims. I wanted to send a hearty thanks to all of the organizers of the conference, especially Judge Tapp! It was a great opportunity presenting on the topic of Private Conflicts: How the New Private Sector OCI Rules Could Impact Federal Procurement. I also thoroughly enjoyed the other presentations at the conference. For those looking for more information on this topic, here are some resources for you:

GAO Sustain: Offeror’s Failure to Follow Solicitation’s Document Preparation Instructions was Unstated Evaluation Criteria

A recent GAO decision considered whether an agency could reject an offeror’s proposal based on the offeror’s failure to follow document preparation instructions that were not explicitly stated in the solicitation. In Hometown Veterans Medical, LLC B-422751 (Oct. 11, 2024), the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) issued a request for proposals (“RFP”) from service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses for home oxygen services for patients at the VA’s Birmingham Veterans Medical Center. Th

SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 21-25, 2024

Happy Friday! I just got back from presenting at the 35th Judicial Conference for the United States Court of Federal Claims. It was a great experience and I got to learn from some very smart folks. But the wheel of federal contracting keeps turning, and this week was no different. Important stories included updates from a recent OIG SBA report, a bill to modernize federal cloud procurement, and the Army seeks to cut contract award times to six months. Have a great weekend. OFPP pushing

OHA: Show me the Management, or Fail SDVOSB Certification

A recent OHA decision reminds us that it’s important to show and tell the SBA how a company seeking certification is meeting the SBA’s requirements for control of a socioeconomic company. Like many of these decisions involving SBA’s programs, it comes out of the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) VetCert program. That’s because the SDVOSB program allows appeals of denials of certifications. The other programs don’t allow such broad reasons for appeals from certifications (or

Event Announcement: NAPEX Fall Conference 2024

We are excited to announce that Nicole Pottroff will be attending the Fall NAPEX conference in Washington DC and will be presenting on legal updates on October 30. The conference gives agencies and primes the opportunity to promote supplier diversity programs and learn how the APEX Accelerators can partner and assist in meeting contracting goals. The Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) is the professional organization of and for the DoD APEX Accelerators nationwid

SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 14-18, 2024

Hello, SmallGovCon readers. We hope you are enjoying some nice fall weather wherever you are, here in Kansas our temperatures are finally down in the 70s, which has been a welcome relief. Some articles we’ve highlighted this week include multiple takes on the new CMMC rule finalized by the Pentagon, and a updates on DoD spending. You can read more about these topics and news from this week in the links below.  Here’s what veterans will get for a cost-of-living increase next year  Pe

Preview Shows Changes to 8(a) Application in New SBA Portal

As many in federal contracting know, the SBA had its certification portal (certify.sba.gov) closed for upgrades for a few months. The SBA is replacing it with a new portal called MySBA Certifications which as of the writing of this blog post is now live. While it hasn’t been widely published, SBA released screenshots of this new portal, which indicate SBA is making some large changes to applications, especially for applications to the 8(a) Program. We here at SmallGovCon think it is important fo

35th Annual Judicial Conference – U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington DC

I will be presenting at the 35th Annual Judicial Conference in Washington, D.C., on October 23. This prestigious event gathers legal professionals, judges, and scholars from across the country to discuss the latest developments in the judiciary and legal system. It’s definitely an honor to be speaking at the 35th Annual Judicial Conference for the Court of Federal Claims. My topic is: Private Conflicts: How the New Private Sector OCI Rules Could Impact Federal Procurement. Hope to see yo

Agency Discretion Recertified: GAO Affirms Agency Discretion to Request Size Recertification for Task Orders

When it comes to meeting the size standards, the normal rule for a set-aside contract is simple: If you’re small at the time you submitted your initial offer for the contract, you’re small for the life of the contract. So says 13 C.F.R. § 121.404–although this could be changing in the future based on a proposed SBA rule. Furthermore, this is the general rule with set-aside IDIQs as well: If you’re small at the time of initial offer for the IDIQ, you’re small for all orders under that IDIQ. (Not

New Podcast out now with Govcon Giants

Check out my podcast recording with Eric Coffie of Govcon Giants. In this podcast, we talk about about key strategies that can help small businesses succeed. From the importance of understanding the Small Business Administration (SBA) rules to forming effective joint ventures and teaming agreements. Check out this recording and a lot of other great recordings from Govcon Giants. Thanks to Eric for the opportunity to chat and to be part of his great podcast! The post New Podcast out now with

SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 7-11, 2024

Hello, SmallGovCon readers. Our thoughts go out to those effected by the hurricane, this week. We hope you are safe. Some articles we’ve highlighted this week include current trends in the GovCon market and DoD considering a faster acquisition pathway for AI. You can read more about these topics and news from this week in the links below.  GSA Unveils List of 100 Apparent Awardees on Polaris IT GWAC Small Business Pool  Lawmakers want more time off for service members  GovCon In