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On May 14, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a stark warning to government contractors: when a bid protest is filed involving your contract, failing to timely intervene can cost you the ability to defend your award.  In Global K9 Protection Group, LLC v. United States, the Federal Circuit upheld the denial of K2 Solutions, Inc.’s motion to intervene, finding that K2 had waited too long to act despite having sufficient reason to do so.

Continue Reading Don’t Get Left in the Doghouse: The Federal Circuit’s Global K9 Case and the Duty to Intervene
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Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement. In this episode, Crowell’s Christian Curran, Zachary Schroeder, and Bryan Dewan discuss a recent GAO sustain about final proposal revisions, along with two notable Federal Circuit opinions from May 2026 covering bid protest intervention and the discretion afforded to agencies in evaluating proposals.

Continue Reading All Things Protest: Final Proposal Revisions and Federal Circuit Opinions
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the cross-agency Trade Fraud Task Force have upped the ante by an order of magnitude in the government’s pursuit of customs fraud. On May 1, 2026—only a few months after setting its previous record-high customs-related False Claims Act (FCA) settlement of $54.4 million with Ceratizit USA, LLC—the DOJ shattered that record with a $549.5 million settlement with Perfectus Aluminum Inc., its subsidiary Perfectus Aluminum Acquisitions LLC, and a set of four affiliated warehousing companies. The Perfectus settlement resolves allegations that the defendants violated the FCA by evading antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD). The settlement resolves three separate qui tam complaints filed by two individual relators and the Aluminum Extruders Council, an international industry association. Defendants were previously criminally convicted on charges related to the same scheme, and those convictions were affirmed by the Ninth Circuit in 2024.

Continue Reading (Not) All’s Weld That Ends Weld: Duty Evasion Scheme Ends in Historic $549.5M FCA Settlement
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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 keeps 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 only sustain decision of March 2026, N&S Property Services, LLC, where an agency’s technical evaluation repeatedly penalized a protester for doing precisely what the solicitation required.

Continue Reading March 2026 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: Under the Heat of GAO Review, ICE’s Evaluation Reasoning Melts Away
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This week’s episode covers a new Executive Order on fixed-price contracting, a new DOJ initiative targeting coordination with data-mining qui tam relators, and a proposed rule that would extend FOCI reviews to uncleared defense contractors, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. 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:

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On May 7, 2026, the Department of War issued the long-awaited Proposed Rule to implement Section 847 of the FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) regarding Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence (FOCI) requirements for contractors. The proposed rule would expand the applicability of FOCI reviews, requiring contractors and subcontractors on unclassified “covered contracts” — defense contracts and subcontracts valued in excess of $5 million that are not for commercial products and services — to submit FOCI disclosures to the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) for FOCI risk assessment (and as applicable, mitigation) as part of contract award. This would effectively require DCSA assessment and adjudication of FOCI considerations prior to contract award. Thus, both cleared and uncleared defense contractors would be subject to the rigorous DCSA disclosure requirements, scrutiny, and FOCI mitigation. Crowell discussed the Section 847 requirements in a prior alert.

Continue Reading Proposed DFARS Rule Could Require Disclosures and Mitigation Related to Foreign Ownership, Control, and Influence (FOCI) on Certain Unclassified Contracts
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On April 13, 2026, President Trump signed into law the Small Business Innovation and Economic Security Act, which reauthorized the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.  These programs are Small Business Administration-sponsored initiatives intended to encourage small business contractors to conduct early-stage research and development (R&D) and help foster technological innovation related to U.S. government needs across several federal agencies, including the Department of War, Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and National Institutes of Health.  SBIR/STTR are sometimes referred to as “America’s Seed Fund.”  Consistent with that characterization, SBIR contractors performing in the defense and technology space are often the focus of venture capital and private equity interest and investment.

Continue Reading Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) 101: Following Re-Authorization, What Contractors (and Their Investors) Need to Know
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A recent Illinois appellate decision has narrowed a key protection that state and local government contractors have long been able to rely on under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). In Thomas v. Cornerstone Services, Inc., the Illinois Appellate Court held that BIPA’s government contractor exemption does not provide blanket immunity to contractors simply because they hold a contract or subcontract with a state agency or local unit of government. The ruling carries important compliance implications for contractors and subcontractors operating across both government and private-sector markets.

Continue Reading Government Contractors, Take Note: Illinois Court Curtails Broad BIPA Exemption
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This week’s episode covers implementation of EO 14398 (Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors), the reauthorization of the SBIR program, and the Pentagon’s FY27 budget request, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. 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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As discussed in our March 30, 2026, client alert, Déjà Vu: New Executive Order Outlines Restrictions on Contractor and Subcontractor DEI Activity, President Trump issued Executive Order 14398 (EO 14398), Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors, on March 26, 2026. The EO declared DEI activities “unethical and often illegal,” required a new mandatory contract clause for federal contracts and subcontracts, and directed the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council to issue an implementing deviation. That deviation has now arrived. At the same time, a coalition of higher education and government contractor associations has filed suit seeking to block the underlying executive order.

Continue Reading FAR Council Issues Deviation Implementing EO 14398 With FAR 52.222-90 — DEI Restrictions on Federal Contractors