On November 15, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a protest from AtVentures, LLC, a mentor-protégé joint venture, who challenged its exclusion from consideration for award on the basis that it was able to use...more
Space has become central to protecting U.S. national security interests as Americans increasingly rely on space-based services to support everyday life. As a result, the U.S. government has bolstered investment in the space...more
11/25/2024
/ Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Investment ,
Investors ,
National Security ,
NOAA ,
Outer Space ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Small Business ,
Technology Sector ,
Venture Capital
After numerous fits and starts, on October 14, the Department of Defense (DoD) published a final rule implementing the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. Borne from documented deficiencies in the...more
11/12/2024
/ Certifications ,
Compliance ,
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) ,
Defense Contracts ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
DFARS ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Final Rules ,
NIST ,
Proposed Regulation
On September 10, the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) issued an opinion in Zolon PCS II, LLC v. United States, holding that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA or Agency) unreasonably issued a deviation from FAR...more
On August 15, the Department of Defense (DoD) published a proposed rule to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to incorporate contractual requirements related to the proposed Cybersecurity...more
In a recent decision, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) affirmed a Small Business Administration (SBA) Area Office’s size determination and held that procedural deficiencies in a contractor’s Joint Venture Agreement...more
6/27/2024
/ Addendums ,
Appeals ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Procurement Systems ,
Joint Venture ,
Mentor-Protege Program ,
NAICS ,
Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) ,
Operating Agreements ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Required Documentation ,
SBA ,
Small Business
On May 3, the Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) that would prohibit executive...more
5/21/2024
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
NASA ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Semiconductors ,
Supply Chain ,
Waivers
On May 2, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued a class deviation to DFARS 252.204-7012 “to provide industry time for a more deliberate transition upon the forthcoming release of [National Institute of Standards and...more
5/9/2024
/ Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Defense Contracts ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
DFARS ,
Federal Contractors ,
New Regulations ,
NIST ,
Reporting Requirements
On April 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling denying a bid from two outdoor recreation companies asking for a preliminary injunction on a 2021 Department of Labor (DOL) rule...more
On March 22, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained a protest challenging an agency decision finding the protester ineligible for award under both the Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986...more
On March 12, the Department of Defense (DOD) promulgated a final rule that expands the eligibility criteria for the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Cybersecurity Program, a voluntary initiative aimed at bolstering the DIB’s...more
On January 29, the Biden administration announced several policy initiatives aimed at addressing pay transparency and equity, including a proposed rule issued by the Department of Defense (DOD), General Services...more
2/16/2024
/ Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Property and Administrative Services Act (FPASA) ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Ads ,
NASA ,
OFPP ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Transparency ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Procurement Policies ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Wage and Hour
On December 26, the Department of Defense (DoD) published its long-awaited Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program proposed rule, which places comprehensive cybersecurity and information security...more
1/3/2024
/ Certification Requirements ,
Comment Period ,
Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) ,
Cybersecurity ,
Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) ,
DCMA ,
Defense Contracts ,
Defense Sector ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Federal Contractors ,
NIST ,
Proposed Rules
On November 17, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a final rule, implementing Section 874 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), clarifying that certain DoD-unique statutes and Defense Federal Acquisition...more
On October 26, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent its annual bid protest report to Congress, which reflected a dramatic increase in protests filed following four straight years of decline.
The report provides...more
The health of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) has been brought to the fore as the United States responds to wars in Ukraine and Israel. Unfortunately, according to the National Defense Industrial Association’s “Vital Signs”...more
On September 29, the Small Business Administration (SBA) reopened its Certify portal to new applicants seeking admittance into the SBA 8(a) program....more
On July 19, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled in favor of Ultima Services Corporation, prompting the pause of new 8(a) applications and necessitating a reorganization of the program’s...more
8/24/2023
/ 8(a) Program ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Eligibility ,
Equal Protection ,
Federal Contractors ,
Interim Guidance ,
Mentor-Protege Program ,
Race Discrimination ,
SBA ,
Small Business ,
Women-Owned Businesses ,
WOSB
Effective May 30, 2023, a Small Business Administration (SBA) final rule made some notable changes to SBA’s 8(a) Business Development (BD) program, a valuable resource for those firms owned by socially and economically...more
On March 22, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued a proposed rule that would amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS) to require certain contractors to provide the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA)...more
On December 19, 2022, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a proposed rule that would amend the SBA regulations to implement Section 870 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2020. Section 870...more
Over the last few years, the government has shifted away from lowest price technically acceptable valuations placing a larger importance on past performance. The past performance requirement can sometimes create obstacles for...more
2/21/2023
/ Bid Protests ,
Bids ,
Business Development ,
Contract Terms ,
Federal Contractors ,
GAO ,
Joint Venture ,
Mentor-Protege Program ,
Prime Contractor ,
Small Business ,
Solicitation ,
Subcontractors
Generally, when a business is awarded a multi-year IDIQ contract, it retains its “small” business designation unless a contracting officer (CO) requires the business to recertify its size status, and has since grown larger...more
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has an interesting construction. With seemingly no competition to bring size protests and the successful completion of a previous grant before a second grant, the unusual...more
1/13/2023
/ Appeals ,
Clawbacks ,
Due Diligence ,
Federal Contractors ,
Funding ,
Joint Venture ,
Reauthorization ,
SBA ,
SBIRs ,
Small Business ,
Subcontractors
On December 27, President Biden signed the Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act into law. The legislation, ushered through Congress by a bipartisan group of backers, strengthens existing...more