This week’s episode covers resolution of False Claims Act allegations relating to alleged payments in violation of the Anti-Kickback Act, cessation of certain emergency contracting measures deployed early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and DoD Instruction 8310.01 relating to DoD IT, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes”
On April 18, 2023, the Department of Defense (“DoD”) issued guidance to DoD contracting officers directing the cessation of certain emergency contracting measures utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the termination of the COVID-19 national emergency declaration through President Biden’s April 10, 2023 signing of H.J. Res. 7, DoD released a memorandum titled “
On March 22, 2023, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a proposed rule that would amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to require certain contractors to provide export authorizations to the Defense Authorization Management Agency (DCMA).
DCMA performs quality assurance reviews for manufacturing operations to ensure contractors have the appropriate systems in place to meet quality and functionality standards along with contractual requirements regarding testing and validation. In some cases, DCMA will engage a foreign auditor to perform the quality assurance review. However, to do so DCMA needs insight into applicable export authorizations to see if engaging the foreign auditor is permissible.
The proposed rule would require contractors to provide export authorizations to DCMA when the contract requires (i) government quality assurance surveillance oversight and (ii) performance in or delivery to a government quality assurance country (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom). Export authorizations include export licenses, exemptions, exceptions, and other approvals. The contractor must also provide the contact information for an empowered official or export point of contact.
Continue Reading Proposed Rule Requires Certain Contractors to Provide Export Authorizations to DCMA
On December 23, 2022, the Department of Defense (“DoD”), General Services Administration (“GSA”), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) extended the comment period on the proposed rule, “Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate-Related Financial Risk,” from January 13, 2023 to February 13, 2023. As we summarized previously, the proposed rule would, if
This week’s episode covers the Procurement Collusion Strike Force’s new partnerships and focus areas, DOD OIG’s annual report identifying the DoD’s most serious management and performance challenges, and DOD’s Zero Trust Strategy that provides a roadmap for achieving the DoD’s target cyber defense goals by the end of fiscal year 2027, and is hosted by
On December 1, 2022, Department of Defense (DoD) Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced the establishment of the DoD Office of Strategic Capital (OSC). The mission statement of the OSC is to build an “enduring technical advantage” for the United States by helping partner contractors with private investment to develop national security critical technologies, including those related to advanced materials, next-generation biotechnology, and quantum science. OSC will coordinate with existing organizations such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which promotes acceleration of the military use of commercial technologies.
The OSC intends to offer what it characterizes as “patient” extended-term capital to help contractors obtain financing between the early laboratory-testing and prototyping phases and the full-scale development of products that can be used by the DoD warfighter. In addition to traditional vehicles like contracts and grants, this investment will likely take the form of loans and loan guarantees.
Continue Reading Department of Defense Establishes Office of Strategic Capital to Enhance Investment in National Security Critical Technology
This special edition of the Fastest 5 Minutes podcast covers new rules issued last week by the Department of Defense that implement various requirements of recent National Defense Authorization Acts, including a new rule that imposes additional requirements for contractors to provide cost or pricing data to the government, and is hosted by Peter Eyre
On October 26, 2022, the Department of Defense published a class deviation establishing alternative procedures for verifying the small business size and status of joint venture offerors. This class deviation is necessary because, effective October 28, 2022, the Federal Acquisition Regulation has been updated to include new certifications for use by joint venture offerors in
This week’s episode covers a DOD class deviation providing flexibility around SAM registration timing, GSA and DOD memos regarding inflation and price adjustments, and a Second Circuit decision relating to Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a
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