Government Contracts

Getting government contracts in the future depends greatly on how well a company has performed in the past. That’s because Federal procurement policy for years has stressed the importance of the government using past performance as a mandatory evaluation factor in solicitation for future contracts. Often, these solicitation evaluations are…

With the  coronavirus now  severely impacting the United States, many government contractors are now forced to deal with unforeseen contractual, legal, and business challenges. Here are some  recommendations to help government contractors prepare for the potential impacts on their business.  Issue No. 1:  Disruptions in…

Unlike the automatic stay of performance that protestors get for free at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), stopping contract performance at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC)  comes at a price. The COFC recently imposed a $42,000,000 bond on Amazon for stopping performance of the JEDI contract. The…

A protestor recently learned the hard way that filing a timely agency-level pre-award protest does not preserve those protest claims indefinitely.  The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) published a solicitation for application development and operations and management support services. After receiving initial offers, the CBP issued two key…

DoD Releases V1 of CMMC Framework On January 30, 2020, DoD released Version 1 of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Framework (CMMC v.1).  When fully implemented, this framework will create a unified standard by which all DoD contractors will be required to certify their ability to protect Federal Contract…

A recent GAO decision reaffirms that an agency’s alleged failure to comply with debriefing requirements is a procedural matter not considered by GAO. This decision also highlights why an unsuccessful offeror should be aware of the situations in which a debriefing is actually required by the FAR, as opposed to…

Contractors holding “continuous” GSA Federal Supply Schedule (“FSS”) contracts must be careful they bid under the correct FSS contract.   Starting in February 2016, the General Services Administration (“GSA”) Federal Acquisition Service (“FAS”) allowed contractors to hold two continuous FSS contracts. The revised policies and procedures allow contractors to…

A recent GAO decision demonstrates why a vendor should continue to track contracts it lost for future modifications made by the government. When the Navy modified a contract that increased the contract value by 77%, a competitor saw the Navy’s public notice of the modification and successfully protested the modification.

Small business concerns will be pleased at the recent news that the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) recently made it easier for a small business to remain “small.” The SBA issued a final rule effective January 6, 2020, that changed the time period for determining whether a firm is a small…