In MVL USA, Inc. et al. v. United States, the United States Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”) held that the provisions of FAR 22.505, 52.222-33 and 52.222-34 (collectively, the “PLA mandate”), which required the use of project labor agreements (“PLAs”) on large-scale federal construction projects valued above or at a certain threshold, violated the Competition in Contracting Act (“CICA”). As we previously reported here, former-President Biden issued Executive Order 14063 in February 2022, instructing federal agencies to require construction contractors and subcontractors on projects valued at $35 million or more to “agree, for that project, to negotiate or become a party to” a PLA. A few months later, the FAR Council promulgated a final rule implementing the executive order in FAR 22.505, 52.222-33 and 52.222-34. Continue Reading COFC Holds That Federal PLA Mandate Is Unlawful; Reinterprets Blue and Gold Waiver Rule
Bid Protest
Dismissal of Protest Reminds Contractors that Solicitation Flaws Must Be Protested Before the Proposal Due Date

GAO’s recent dismissal of the protest filed by Worrell Contracting Company highlights several important lessons for government contractors. Worrell Contracting Company, Inc., B‑423208, Jan. 22, 2025, involved a procurement conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency had set the proposal submission date as 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on September 27. However, approximately 8 hours before the proposal submission deadline—at 11:39 p.m. on September 26, the agency issued an amendment that was posted to SAM.gov. The amendment provided a revised price schedule and also extended the proposal submission due date to September 30. Worrell apparently did not notice the SAM.gov posting and proceeded to submit its proposal by the initial September 27 due date. Worrell’s submission failed to acknowledge the amendment, as required by the solicitation. The VA eliminated Worrell’s proposal and made award to another offeror. Worrell protested its elimination on December 2—more than a month after the proposal due date had passed—primarily arguing that the award was improper “because the late posting of the amendment caused an unfair disadvantage and impacted the fairness of the procurement process.” Worrell further argued that “the timing of the amendment did not allow for proper or effective notice to all offerors, which is violation of fair competition principles and section 15.203 of the FAR.” Continue Reading Dismissal of Protest Reminds Contractors that Solicitation Flaws Must Be Protested Before the Proposal Due Date
December 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: Protester’s Persistence Pays Off

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 the most notable bid protest sustain decision each month. Below, Crowell Consultant Cherie Owen discusses Spatial Front, Inc., B-422058.4, B-422058.5, Dec. 6, 2024, 2024 CPD ¶ 30, in which GAO sustained a protest where the agency awarded a contract under the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) but the required services were outside the scope of the awardee’s FSS contract.Continue Reading December 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: Protester’s Persistence Pays Off
November 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: GAO Reminds Agencies that They Must Consider the Impact of a Corporate Transaction When Evaluating Proposals

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 the most notable bid protest sustain decision each month. Below, Crowell Consultant Cherie Owen discusses DecisionPoint Corporation- fka Emesec Inc., in which GAO sustained a protest where the agency failed to consider the impact of a recent corporate transaction on an offeror’s pending proposal.Continue Reading November 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: GAO Reminds Agencies that They Must Consider the Impact of a Corporate Transaction When Evaluating Proposals
October 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: Agency Rejects Proposal on a Technicality; GAO says “Not So Fast!”

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 the most notable bid protest sustain decision each month. Below, Crowell Consultant Cherie Owen discusses Hometown Veterans Medical, LLC, B-422751…
2024 GAO Bid Protest Report Shows Notable Decrease in Merit Decisions


On November 14, 2024, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its Annual Report on Bid Protests for Fiscal Year 2024, containing the full statistics shown below:Continue Reading 2024 GAO Bid Protest Report Shows Notable Decrease in Merit Decisions
Bid Protest: Unreasonable and Ambiguous Solicitation Terms Sink Procurements


The term “bid protest” typically calls to mind challenges to an agency’s award of a contract. But two recent GAO sustain decisions—Wilson 5 Service Company, Inc., B-422670, Sept. 25, 2024, 2024 CPD ¶ 230 and MAXIMUS Federal Services, Inc., B-422676, Sept. 16, 2024, 2024 CPD ¶ 222—highlight another impactful tool for protecting a contractor’s ability to compete fairly: pre-award challenges to ambiguous or unreasonably restrictive solicitation terms.Continue Reading Bid Protest: Unreasonable and Ambiguous Solicitation Terms Sink Procurements
September 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month

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 the most notable bid protest sustain decision each month. Below, Crowell Consultant Cherie Owen discusses Wilson 5 Service Company, Inc., B-422670, September 25, 2024, 2024 CPD ¶ 230, which provides helpful insights regarding protests challenging the terms of a solicitation.Continue Reading September 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
August 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month

As Summer Comes to a Close, So Does GAO’s Sustain Drought
In last month’s Bid Protest Sustain of the Month installment, we noted that GAO was suffering from a sustain drought, having failed to issue a single sustained protest decision in the month of July. But it appears that drought is over! The final tally for August shows that GAO issued a whopping six separate sustained protest decisions in August 2024. Four of these decisions—issued at the end of the month—are still under Protective Orders, so we do not yet know the grounds for the sustains. The remaining two involved less-common sustain issues: an offeror’s compliance with the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) and an agency’s compliance with the “Rule of Two.” In HPI Federal, LLC, B-422583, the protester argued that some of an awardee’s offered products were not TAA compliant. GAO sustained the protest, finding that the contractor had certified only that its products were “assembled” in Mexico, not that they were “an end product of Mexico.” Continue Reading August 2024 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
Bid Protests: GAO Reminds Would-Be Protesters – Timing Is Everything


What You Need to Know
- Key takeaway #1Protests of an agency’s actions during corrective action can raise tricky timeliness issues—if the protest could be construed as challenging the ground rules of the procurement, the protest may be subject to the pre-award timeliness rules. But protests that do not challenge the procurement ground rules, and instead