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Adelicia R. Cliffe

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Adelicia Cliffe is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office, a member of the Steering Committee for the firm's Government Contracts Group, and a member of the International Trade Group. Addie is also co-chair of the firm’s National Security practice. Addie has been named as a nationally recognized practitioner in the government contracts field by Chambers USA.

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On September 15, 2022, the Biden Administration issued a new executive order (“EO”) and accompanying fact sheet, designed to sharpen the current U.S. foreign investment screening process as administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS” or the “Committee”). [1] This EO is the first to specifically identify certain additional national security factors for CFIUS to consider when evaluating transactions involving foreign investors. 

While the EO does not expand the jurisdiction of CFIUS or establish new requirements, the EO formally directs CFIUS to focus on transactions that could give foreign parties access to U.S. technologies, data, or critical supply chains that the Biden Administration has identified as important for maintaining U.S. economic and technological edge. The EO does not mention any specific country, but underscores the threat posed by inbound investments “involving foreign adversaries or other countries of special concern,” which may appear to be only economic transactions for commercial purposes but could “actually present an unacceptable risk to United States national security due to the legal environment, intentions, or capabilities of the foreign person, including foreign governments involved in the transaction.” [2]…

Continue Reading Biden Administration Announces Presidential Directive on Sharpening Foreign Investment Screening by CFIUS

Not to be outdone by the Department of Defense’s commitment to consider inflation relief, on September 12, 2022, the General Services Administration (“GSA”) Federal Acquisition Service published a Supplement to Acquisition Letter MV-22-02, extending and enhancing policies to provide inflation relief to GSA Schedule contractors.  As we previously explained, the original Acquisition Letter relaxed…

On September 8, 2022, the Department of Defense (“DoD”) issued Class Deviation 2022-O0009 (the “Deviation”) immediately authorizing contracting officers to allow active registration in the System for Award Management (“SAM”) within 30 days of contract award or three days prior to submission of the first invoice (whichever comes first) rather than at the time of award—provided the contractor can prove it has initiated or attempted to start the SAM registration process.  The Deviation is in effect through October 31, 2022 unless rescinded or extended.

The SAM registration process, which changed in April 2022 when GSA switched from the DUNS number to the Unique Entity Identifier (“UEI”), has suffered from significant delays and system errors.  These system challenges continue, and SAM incident tickets continue to take weeks to process in many cases.  With this Deviation, DoD joins a number of other agencies that have already issued guidance for managing SAM delays that may affect contracts or grants.

Continue Reading DoD Issues Deviation for SAM Registration Requirement Due to Ongoing Processing Delays

This special edition of the Fastest 5 Minutes podcast covers recent developments related to domestic preferences including executive orders, final regulations, the Made in America Office, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and is hosted by Peter Eyre, Addie Cliffe, and Allison Skager. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a biweekly podcast that…

On August 25, 2022 the Defense Acquisition Regulations System published two new DFARS clauses prohibiting the award of covered Department of Defense (“DoD”) contracts to contractors that leverage resources in China unless those resources are disclosed.  Implementing Section 855 of the FY22 National Defense Authorization Act and effective immediately, the clauses are DFARS 252.225-7057 “Preaward Disclosure of Employment of Individuals Who Work in the People’s Republic of China” and DFARS 252.225-7058 “Postaward Disclosure of Employment of Individuals Who Work in the People’s Republic of China.” These clauses will be incorporated into DoD solicitations and contracts with an estimated value over $5 million unless a senior procurement executive waives the disclosure requirements due to national security interests.  The requirements do not apply to contracts for commercial products and commercial services, including contracts for commercially available off-the-shelf (“COTS”) items, or to contracts at or below the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $250,000).

Continue Reading DoD Rule on Reporting Employees in China Published and In Effect This Week

On July 18, the GSA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued an Alert Memorandum both broadcasting and criticizing the Federal Acquisition Service’s (FAS) apparent decision to expand the Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) rule to the entire Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). The TDR Pilot Program studied the potential for TDR to reduce the compliance burdens of the MAS program by replacing the various requirements Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contractors must fulfill to ensure the pricing offered to GSA customers is fair and reasonable, including the obligation to make Commercial Sales Practice disclosures and to track commercial pricing and discounts to the negotiated Basis of Award customer under the Price Reductions Clause. The GSA OIG previously criticized the TDR Pilot Program.

Continue Reading TDR Wars—Episode V: OIG Strikes Back

As of April 4, 2022, the federal government will stop using the Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal Number Systems (DUNS) Number to uniquely identify entities and will fully transition to using the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). All entities will be using the UEI number for SAM and other government systems (including FPDS.gov, eSRS.gov,…

On March 17, 2022, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) published an initial draft of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Risk Management Framework (“AI RMF”) to promote the development and use of responsible AI technologies and systems.  When final, the three-part AI RMF is intended for voluntary use and to improve the ability to…

On March 7, 2022, the FAR Council published a Final Rule implementing further revisions to the Buy American Act (BAA), as contemplated by President Biden’s Executive Order titled Ensuring the Future is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers, which he issued his first week in office. The Final Rule makes three…

During December 2021, the House and Senate reached agreement on a compromise National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022.  On December 23, 2021, Congress presented S. 1605 to President Biden, which he signed on December 27, 2021.

The FY2022 NDAA contains numerous provisions relating to acquisition policy—which provide new opportunities for government contractors, will result in the imposition of new clauses or reporting requirements on government contractors, require government reporting to Congress on acquisition authorities and programs, alter processes and/or procedures to which government contractors are subject, etc.  Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts Group discusses the most consequential changes in the FY2022 NDAA for government contractors below. …
Continue Reading National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022: Acquisition Policy Changes of Which Government Contractors Should Be Aware