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The following is an installment in Crowell & Moring’s Bid Protest Sustain of the Month Series.  In this series, Crowell’s Government Contracts Practice will keep you up to date with a summary of one of the most notable bid protest sustain decisions each month.  Below, Crowell Consultant (and former GAO Bid Protest Hearing Officer) Cherie Owen discusses GAO’s decision in DirectViz Solutions, LLC, B-423366, June 11, 2025, which sustained a protester’s organizational conflict of interest (OCI) arguments.

Continue Reading June 2025 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: Impaired Objectivity OCI Allegations Find Success at GAO
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This week’s episode covers developments involving the Department of Homeland Security, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Sharmi Das. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

Click below to listen or access from one of these links:

PodBean | SoundCloud | iTunes

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The deadlines for filing a GAO protest are short and strictly enforced.  In post-award protests, the general rule is that a company must file its protest within ten days of when the protester knows, or should have known, of its basis of protest.  However, GAO’s regulations provide an exception to this rule for “protests challenging a procurement conducted on the basis of competitive proposals under which a debriefing is requested and, when requested, is required”—in such a situation, “[the] protest shall not be filed before the debriefing date offered to the protester, but shall be filed not later than 10 days after the date on which the debriefing is held.”  4 CFR §21.2(a)(2).

Continue Reading GAO Moves the Goalposts: New Post-Debriefing Timeliness Trap for Protesters
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On June 23, 2025, the Ninth Circuit issued a long-awaited decision in Island Industries Inc. v. Sigma Corp. affirming a $26M False Claims Act (“FCA”) judgment against the defendant importer.  Sigma had appealed the judgment after a jury found the company violated the FCA by failing to pay customs duties owed to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”).  The Ninth Circuit’s decision addresses an important jurisdictional issue and illustrates the significant financial exposure importers can face under the FCA at a time of increased tariffs and enforcement by the government.  

Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Decision Underscores Increasing False Claims Act Risks to U.S. Importers
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On June 23, 2025, the DoD issued a memorandum, “Implementation of Department of Government Efficiency Cost Efficiency Initiative,” to establish a new DOGE approval process for unclassified IT consulting and management services (ITC&MS) contracts or task orders (TOs), and advisory and assistance services (A&AS) contracts or TOs.  The memorandum establishes a formal approval process, which directs DOGE to review and provide input for certain contract requirement packages included in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s May 27, 2025 directive, “Implementation of Executive Order 14222 – Department of Government Efficiency Cost Efficiency Initiative” (“Contract Guidance”). 

Continue Reading DoD Establishes New DOGE Approval Process for ITC&MS and A&AS Contracts
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This week’s episode covers developments involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Alex Kramer. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory developments that no government contracts lawyer or executive should be without.

Click below to listen or access from one of these links:

PodBean | SoundCloud | iTunes

Photo of Cherie Owen

The following is an installment in Crowell & Moring’s Bid Protest Sustain of the Month Series.  In this series, Crowell’s Government Contracts Practice will keep you up to date with a summary of one of the most notable bid protest sustain decisions each month.  Below, Crowell Consultant (and former GAO Bid Protest Hearing Officer) Cherie Owen discusses several protest decisions issued in May that provide helpful insights about the GAO protest process.

Continue Reading May 2025 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: In a Sustain-less Month, a Look Back at May’s Digested Dismissal Decisions
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On June 9, 2025, the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) quietly announced that Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) would be exiting “pilot” status; under Refresh 27 to the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), TDR will be mandatory for all eligible Special Item Numbers (SINs), effective beginning in the next sales reporting quarter after each contractor accepts the modification, with remaining SINs to be added in future refreshes.  

Continue Reading P-R-C You Later! GSA Previews Final Transition to Transactional Data Reporting for Schedule Contract Pricing
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On June 6, 2025 President Trump signed an Executive Order, Sustaining Select Efforts to Strengthen the Nation’s Cybersecurity and Amending Executive Order 13694 and Executive Order 14144 (the “Trump Cyber EO”). The Trump Cyber EO rescinds and modifies select Biden administration guidance from EO 14144 covering several cybersecurity regimes, including digital identity verification, artificial intelligence, and secure software development practices, and it amends Obama administration guidance from EO 13694 authorizing sanctions on persons involved in malicious cyber activities. We have provided a summary of significant changes made by the Trump Cyber EO below.

Continue Reading Trump Administration Cyber Executive Order Revises Prior Administrations’ Requirements
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On May 29, 2025, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it will begin a “phased pause in operations at contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide.” The pause is anticipated to occur within a month—by June 30, 2025. To effectuate this pause, DOL has suspended operations at approximately one hundred contractor-operated Job Corps centers.  DOL instructed centers to suspend program activities, transition students home, and implement other transition plans. According to DOL’s Frequently Asked Questions, the Department anticipates that  students will transition to “state and local workforce partners” including American Job Centers and the Labor Exchange system in their home state.

Continue Reading Job Corps Centers: Widespread Contract Terminations due to Agency’s “Pause”