Last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a Florida grand jury indicted three men for conspiring to rig bids for customized promotional products to the U.S. Army and charged two of them with conspiring to...more
5/23/2022
/ Bid Rigging ,
Bids ,
Collusion ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Contractors ,
Fraud ,
Fraudulent Procurement ,
Indictments ,
Procurement Collusion Strike Force ,
Solicitation
In a memorandum circulated during “National Sunshine Week” celebrating the importance of open government, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed heads of executive agencies and departments to favor transparency and...more
On December 8, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14057 “Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability.” The EO is the administration’s most recent effort to achieve “a carbon...more
1/12/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Electricity ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Infrastructure ,
Net Zero ,
Sustainability ,
Zero-Emission Vehicles
A 2016 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report noted that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) did not have an official method of validating contractors’ affirmative action plans or programs (AAP)...more
For nearly two years, we have been reporting on this blog about the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. CMMC is a training, certification, and third-party assessment...more
The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that President Biden signed on November 15, expands the provisions supporting American manufacturing through federal procurement. The IIJA statutory directives...more
Organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) are troubling for both the government and contractors. Under FAR 2.101, an OCI is a situation where “a person is unable or potentially unable to render impartial assistance or advice...more
The FAR Council recently published its proposed rule to implement a part of President Biden’s January 28, 2021 Executive Order No. 14005 (EO 14005), which dictated certain revisions to the Buy American Act (BAA) regulations....more
The Court of Federal Claims (COFC) recently affirmed that agencies are required to apply the “Rule of Two” to all federal acquisitions in its decision of Tolliver Grp., Inc. v. United States. Further, agencies must give a...more
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC) decision in HWI Gear, Inc. v. United States highlights the importance of reviewing a solicitation to determine if the text of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.219-28 is included...more
Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s (Federal Circuit) opinion in The Boeing Co. v. Secretary of the Air Force shed additional light on the technical data rights of contractors under defense...more
In October, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) published a final rule entitled “Consolidation of Mentor-Protégé Programs and Other Government Contracting Amendments,” which went into effect on November 16, 2020....more
On September 24, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied DynCorp International, LLC’s (DynCorp) protest of the Department of the Army’s award of a global intelligence logistics support task order to CACI...more
For over a year, we have been discussing the Department of Defense’s (DoD) eventual implementation of a Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program for Defense contractors, most recently during a webinar in...more
We recently wrote about the impacts of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on pending bids in Bloomberg Law and our GovCon & Trade Blog. A key point discussed in both articles is that a bidding company’s buyer may not have...more
President Trump today signed into law the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 (PPP Flexibility Act), which was passed by the House of Representatives last week and by the Senate on Wednesday night.
The PPP...more
The Small Business Administration (SBA) issued two interim final rules on May 22 providing, respectively, additional clarifications regarding Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness (the Forgiveness Rule) and...more
This alert, originally published May 19, 2020, was updated to reflect further guidance issued by the SBA on May 22, 2020 regarding PPP loan forgiveness.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) has released the first major...more
Just one day before the May 14 safe harbor date for borrowers to repay loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued additional guidance regarding the good faith “need”...more
This alert has been updated to reflect further guidance issued by the Small Business Administration (SBA) on May 5, 2020 indicating that forthcoming rule changes will extend the repayment date for the safe harbor discussed...more
5/6/2020
/ Borrowers ,
CARES Act ,
Certificate of Need ,
Certifications ,
Federal Loans ,
Federal Taxes ,
Final Rules ,
Loan Forgiveness ,
New Guidance ,
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) ,
Safe Harbors ,
SBA ,
Small Business
In an effort to dramatically expand the amount of aid made available to small businesses under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the U.S. Senate yesterday approved over $320 billion in additional...more
With the much-anticipated release of the Small Business Administration (SBA) Interim Final Rule on affiliation under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) late on April 3, those waiting with bated breath for any clarification...more
While the health of our citizens is, as it must be, the primary focus of the response, Congress and the Executive Branch are scrambling to ensure that companies have sufficient liquidity to continue operations, and continue...more
On March 25, 2020, the Senate unanimously passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in response to COVID-19, and the House is scheduled to vote on the CARES Act on March 27, 2020. President...more
The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) manages nine healthcare related ‘schedules,’ groups of umbrella contracts used to order medical supplies and services, under the Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) program. These schedules...more