This week’s episode covers a new DFARS provision about Commercial Solutions Opening, a bid protest decision about timeliness, significant developments in the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program, and updates to the Davis-Bacon Act and Related Acts, and is hosted by Peter Eyre, Olivia Lynch, and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a
Bid Protests
Bite Your Tongue or Eat Your Words: GAO Reminds Contractors that Correspondence with the Agency Can Be Construed as an Agency-Level Protest, Doubling Down on a Timeliness Trap
When faced with a dissatisfying debriefing, a contractor may choose to respond to the agency to question or even rebut its evaluation. However, the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision in NikSoft Systems Corporation (NikSoft) serves as an important reminder that those communications can be interpreted as agency-level protests, with potential to render subsequent GAO protests untimely.
Fastest 5 Minutes: Regulatory Updates, Bid Protests
This week’s episode covers a final DOL rule relating to OFCCP’s pre-enforcement resolution procedures, regulatory updates on sustainable procurement and CMMC, and a bid protest decision regarding unfair competitive advantage, 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…
Float Like a Butterfly (Valve), Sting Like a B(AA Requirement): GAO Issues Rare Decision Sustaining Challenge to Agency’s Application of the Buy American Act
In a polarized political environment, one area of bipartisan agreement in recent years has been renewed interest in leveraging government purchasing power to promote the domestic manufacturing base by expanding and strengthening federal “Buy America” requirements. For direct federal procurements subject to the Buy American Act (BAA), this has resulted in revised rules increasing the amount of U.S. content required to qualify a product as domestic, as well as heightened scrutiny of when waivers may be issued exempting a procurement in whole or in part from those requirements (covered here and here). Continue Reading Float Like a Butterfly (Valve), Sting Like a B(AA Requirement): GAO Issues Rare Decision Sustaining Challenge to Agency’s Application of the Buy American Act
All Things Protest: COFC Finds Agency’s Reliance on GAO Key Personnel Ruling Irrational
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, hosts Christian Curran and Rob Sneckenberg discuss the latest Court of Federal Claims decision disagreeing with a Government Accountability Office…
July 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
The following is an installment in Crowell & Moring’s 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month Series. All through 2023, 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 Partner Cherie Owen discusses MPZA, LLC, B-421568, B-421568.2, July 3, 2023, 2023 CPD ¶ 165, in which GAO discussed the amount of documentation needed to support an agency’s price analysis. Continue Reading July 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
June 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
The following is an installment in Crowell & Moring’s 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month Series. All through 2023, 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 Partner Cherie Owen discusses Kupono Gov’t Servs., LLC; Akima Sys. Eng’g, LLC, in which GAO sustained a challenge to an agency’s corrective action.
June 2023 may go down in history as the month with the highest sustain rate in GAO’s history – if GAO published monthly sustain rate data, that is. Although GAO issued a handful of sustained decisions, one of those decisions is likely to drive GAO’s “sustain rate” statistic through the roof this year: Systems Plus, Inc. et al., which sustained 98 protests and supplemental protests related to the Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners (CIO-SP4) procurement. (In July, GAO issued another decision sustaining 28 additional protests and supplemental protests relating to the same procurement.) While GAO’s CIO-SP4 decisions were interesting, they may have allowed an even more impactful sustain decision to slip under the radar. Continue Reading June 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
Fastest 5 Minutes: DHS Cybersecurity, Embracing Commercial Innovation, Bid Protests
This week’s episode covers a DHS final rule implementing measures to safeguard Controlled Unclassified Information and facilitate improved incident reporting to DHS, a letter from Silicon Valley defense technology and venture capital firms calling on DoD to better embrace and scale commercial innovation for military use, a bid protest decision in which the Court found…
All Things Protest: Recent Corrective Action and Clarification Wins
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.
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May 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
The following is an installment in Crowell & Moring’s 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month Series. All through 2023, 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 Partner Cherie Owen and Summer Associate Riley Flewelling discuss GAO’s decision sustaining the protest of Veteran’s Management, Inc. (“VMI”).
May closed with an impressive number publicly released GAO sustain decisions, but one stood above the rest. In Veteran’s Management, Inc., GAO clarified the requirements of agency evaluations under FAR 52.222-45, and revisited the definition of a “professional employee” discussed in GAO’s Sabre Systems, Inc. decision released earlier this year. Continue Reading May 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month