On September 2, 2026, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), through its Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), released two new Notices on the topic of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI): ISOO Notices 2026-07 and 2026-08.
Continue Reading New ISOO Guidance Directs Federal Agencies to Provide More CUI Guidance to Contractors
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 decision in LJR Solutions, LLC, B-424487, Aug. 14, 2026, where GAO sustained a small business’s challenge to the National Institutes of Health’s decision not to set aside a procurement for small business concerns.
Continue Reading August 2026 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: Agency’s Rule of Two Set-Aside Determination Failed on Multiple Fronts
This week’s episode covers a Pentagon directive on supplier cost and pricing, GSA’s announcement about suspected procurement fraud, a federal court ruling in the Anthropic case, a new class deviation overhauling Cost Accounting Standards thresholds, and SBA’s proposed restructuring of small business size standards, and is hosted by
The “too close at hand” principle allows GAO or the court to find an evaluation unreasonable where an agency fails to consider past performance information it was aware of – even if that information was not in the offeror’s proposal. The principle originates from GAO’s 1997 decision in International Business Systems, Inc., where GAO sustained a protest after finding that an agency unreasonably failed to consider past performance information that “involved the same agency, the same contracting officer, and virtually the same services” as the procurement at issue. GAO held that “some information is simply too close at hand to require offerors to shoulder the inequities that spring from an agency’s failure to obtain, and consider, the information.” Since that decision, the argument has become a common tool in protesters’ challenges to past performance evaluations, though as discussed in “Bid Protest Pitfalls: Three Commonly Misused Arguments at GAO,” the argument is frequently misused by protesters unfamiliar with GAO’s precedent on the issue.
Continue Reading Recent Court Decision Indicates the “Close at Hand” Doctrine is Alive and Well
On August 20, 2026, the Small Business Administration (SBA) proposed to materially amend the way it establishes size standards for purposes of federal procurement.
Continue Reading SBA Proposal to Overhaul Size Standards Would Transform Federal Government Contracting
On September 1, 2026, the Eleventh Circuit issued its long-anticipated decision in United States v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC, – F.4th –, 2026 WL 2581886 (11th Cir. Sept. 1, 2026) (the “Zafirov appeal”) overturning the district court and holding that the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (“FCA”) do not violate the Appointments Clause of Article II of the United States Constitution because relators are not officers of the United States that occupy “continuing positions.” The Eleventh Circuit did not reach other arguments made by the parties and remanded the case to the District Court for the Middle District of Florida to address two other constitutional arguments challenging the FCA’s qui tam provisions based on Article II’s Vesting and Take Care Clauses.
Continue Reading Next Stop, Supreme Court? Eleventh Circuit Upholds the Constitutionality of the FCA’s Qui Tam Provisions
On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Deloitte LLP and several of its subsidiaries agreed to pay, collectively, $21.5 million to resolve allegations that Deloitte violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by failing to comply with new anti-discrimination requirements incorporated into its federal contracts, by discriminating against employees and applicants on the basis of race and sex, and by allocating and seeking reimbursement for costs related to those practices under its federal government contracts. This resolution is the second of its kind under DOJ’s recently launched Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, following a similar settlement by IBM in April 2026.
Continue Reading DOJ’s Civil Rights Fraud Initiative Claims Another DEI-Related FCA Settlement
A recent U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC) decision serves as an important reminder that when the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denies a protest, this is not necessarily the end of the road. Often, contractors retain the right to file a new protest at the COFC, which conducts its own de novo review of the procurement record. This so-called “second bite at the apple” protest is a powerful tool as the COFC’s recent decision in Chugach Logistics & Facility Services JV, LLC v. USA makes clear.
In a post-award bid protest involving a nearly $100 million United States Navy Base Operations Support Contract (BOSC), Chugach Logistics and Facility Services JV, LLC (Chugach) filed a protest at GAO contesting the award of the BOSC to CCS King George 2, LLC (CCS KG). Chugach argued that the agency unreasonably evaluated proposals and made a flawed source selection decision. GAO denied the protest. Chugach then filed an action at the COFC. On August 17, 2026, the COFC reached a materially different outcome — sustaining the protest and ordering the Navy to cancel the award.
Continue Reading Recent Court Decision Highlights Effectiveness of “Second Bite” Protests
This week’s episode covers a memo outlining the National Fraud Enforcement Division’s enforcement priorities, a White House memo that authorizes certain private sector offensive cyber operations, and a DOJ opinion relating to executive privilege, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5
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 decision in Veros Real Estate Solutions, LLC, where the VA’s past performance relevancy evaluation unraveled under GAO scrutiny for lacking any meaningful supporting analysis.
Continue Reading July 2026 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month: Four Reports, Zero Analysis, One Problem – VA’s Past Performance Evaluation Falls Short