By Robert Burton, Lorraine M. Campos, Olivia Lynch and Elizabeth Buehler on Posted in Legal DevelopmentsCrowell & Moring has issued its “Regulatory Forecast 2018: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year.” The section focusing on government contracts, “Will Purchasing Be Streamlined?” provides an overview of how the procurement process might be made more efficient, and this time, government contractors might be able to weigh in on the… Continue Reading
By Lorraine M. Campos and Sarah Bartle on Posted in Ethics & ComplianceOn February 8, 2017, the Department of Justice Fraud Section posted a new guidance document on its website entitled, “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” (“Compliance Guidance”). This Compliance Guidance, comprised of a number of topics and questions, comes a little over a year after the Fraud Section hired Hui Chen as its resident compliance expert. … Continue Reading
By Elizabeth Buehler, Robert Burton, Lorraine M. Campos and Peter J. Eyre on Posted in Legal DevelopmentsContinuing his trend of fulfilling the promises set forth in his Contract with the American Voter, President Trump, on January 30, 2017, issued an Executive Order mandating the elimination of at least two existing regulations for every new regulation issued. In particular, the order explains that “whenever an executive department or agency…publicly proposes for notice… Continue Reading
By Robert Burton, Lorraine M. Campos, Peter J. Eyre, David J. Ginsberg and Elizabeth Buehler on Posted in Ethics & ComplianceOn Saturday, January 28, President Trump issued an Executive Order setting forth the ethics regulations governing current and future executive agency appointments, which is both more restrictive and less restrictive than the 2009 Obama Executive Order addressing the same issue. Specifically, and with respect to the former, President Trump’s order bans all executive agency appointees… Continue Reading
By Lorraine M. Campos, Gail D. Zirkelbach, Nkechi Kanu and Joelle Sires on Posted in Ethics & ComplianceOn November 18, 2016, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) issued a final rule revising the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch (“Standards”) applicable to the solicitation and acceptance of gifts from outside sources. See 5 CFR § 2635. The final rule imposes a duty to decline otherwise permissible gifts when… Continue Reading
By Lorraine M. Campos, David B. Robbins and M. Yuan Zhou on Posted in Suspension & DebarmentWhen assessing whether a contractor is eligible for award, contracting officers are required to conduct a meaningful present responsibility determination using the factors contained in FAR 9.1. However, a final rule issued by the FAR Council on September 30, 2016 has inserted a wild card into the process—the agency suspension and debarment official (SDO). The… Continue Reading
By David B. Robbins and Lorraine M. Campos on Posted in PodcastCrowell & 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. This latest edition is hosted by partners David Robbins and Lorraine Campos and includes updates on the Transactional Data Rule Pilot Program, proposed FAR… Continue Reading
By Lorraine M. Campos, Steve McBrady, Leslie A. Monahan and Trina Fairley Barlow on Posted in GSA Schedule/Commercial ItemsBeginning in June 2016, GSA will remove current wage determinations from existing MAS Schedules and require ordering agencies to incorporate determinations at the task order level to ensure that the “most recent” wage determinations are incorporated when an individual task order is placed. The recently announced change is part of GSA’s plan to “update” the… Continue Reading
By Lorraine M. Campos, Alan W. H. Gourley, Leslie A. Monahan and Adelicia R. Cliffe on Posted in GSA Schedule/Commercial ItemsEarlier this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) announced a seismic shift in policy that opens VA Schedule 65 IB to covered drugs that do not comply with the Trade Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. §2501 et seq.) (“TAA”). While the VA’s prior policy prohibited contractors from offering TAA non-compliant drugs from on a Federal… Continue Reading
By Steve McBrady, Lorraine M. Campos, Alan W. H. Gourley and Adelicia R. Cliffe on Posted in Legal DevelopmentsBy notice published in the Federal Register, the U.S. Trade Representative has confirmed that New Zealand has acceded to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement and thereby, effective August 12, 2015, has become a “designated country” under the Trade Agreements Act. Accordingly, products and services from New Zealand are now eligible to be procured under all contracts… Continue Reading
