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
GAO
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: AI, CIO-SP4, Bid Protests


This week’s episode covers a GAO report on DoD artificial intelligence acquisition, an update on the CIO-SP4 procurement, and a bid protest decision involving a dispute about the enforceability of non-compete agreements, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and Yuan Zhou. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief…
Watchdog Says: DoD Needs Department-Wide AI Acquisition Guidance




On June 29, 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its second report[1] on Department of Defense (DoD) artificial intelligence (AI) acquisition efforts. This latest report examines the DoD’s lack of formal AI acquisition guidance and identifies key principles from the private sector that can be applied to the DoD’s AI acquisition efforts.
Although…
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
March 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 GAO’s decision sustaining the protest of BC Site Services, LLC, (BCSS) in which GAO found that an agency’s exchanges with offerors – even though not labeled as such – constituted discussions. Continue Reading March 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
Fastest 5 Minutes: Supplier Performance Risk System, Procurement Integrity Act


This week’s episode covers a final rule amending the DFARS to incorporate the expanded capabilities of the Supplier Performance Risk System and requirements on contracting officers, a bid protest decision at the Court of Federal Claims regarding standing, and a GAO protest decision about the Procurement Integrity Act, and is hosted by Peter Eyre and…
February 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 a GAO reconsideration decision involving a prior sustain based on an offeror’s material misrepresentation.
Although GAO kicked off 2023 with 3 sustain decisions, February brought a sustain drought – GAO’s public docket shows that GAO did not sustain any protests in the second month of 2023. At first blush, this could appear to be disheartening to would-be protesters. However, the outlook is not as gloomy as it seems. First, it’s important to remember that GAO’s “effectiveness rate” (which measures the percentage of protests that result in some form of relief for the protester, such as voluntary agency corrective action or a sustained decision) consistently hovers near 50%. Thus, even in the absence of written sustain decisions, there were undoubtedly a number of protests that resulted in corrective action during the month. Second, GAO’s docket reflects that the sustain drought has already ended – GAO sustained a protest on March 1. Although that decision is still under the Protective Order and has not yet been released publicly, potential protesters can rest assured that the drought was short-lived. Continue Reading February 2023 Bid Protest Sustain of the Month
Court of Federal Claims Reveals 2022 Protest Statistics
In a speech released last week, Judge Patricia Campbell-Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims shared information regarding the Court’s bid protest statistics in recent years. Although GAO publishes its bid protest statistics on its website each year in connection with its Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress, the Court’s statistics tend to be less well publicized.
Judge Campbell-Smith revealed that there were 135 protests filed with the Court in calendar year 2022 – two more than were filed in 2021. Of the cases filed in 2022, 38 were pre-award protests and 97 were post-award challenges. With respect to the Court’s decisions issued in 2022, the Court denied 127 protests. Judge Campbell Smith noted that, “for both years [2022 and 2021] the court sustained 27 protests.” Continue Reading Court of Federal Claims Reveals 2022 Protest Statistics