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Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) have been controversial in the construction industry. On January 21, 2025, the United States Court of Federal Claims issued a ruling in MVL USA, Inc. et al. v. The United States that found that PLAs violate the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA). The court’s ruling is a major victory for construction contractors who have long argued that PLAs are anti-competitive. The ruling resulted from multiple consolidated bid protests that challenged the legality of mandatory PLAs in federal construction contracts, specifically as mandated by Executive Order 14063 and implemented through Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provisions.

Although the decision only applies to the solicitations that were the subject of the bid protest, it is also possible that the Trump Administration will repeal the executive order that gave rise to the protest. In the meantime, it is likely that a bid protest on any pending or future solicitation that contains a PLA requirement will be sustained.

Continue Reading Court Rules that PLAs Violate the Competition in Contracting Act
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A contractor who is proposed for debarment is effectively debarred as soon as the notice letter is received. It is like being sentenced before trial, and it can take weeks or months for the contractor to convince the debarring official that the proposed debarment should be lifted. A new rule, effective January 17, 2025, amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to improve consistency between procurement and non-procurement procedures regarding suspension and debarment but does not remove the exclusionary effect of a proposed debarment. The final rule, a collaboration between the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is purportedly intended to make the process more transparent and fair.

Continue Reading Changes to the Suspension and Debarment Rules in 2025
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Contractors often seek to recover attorney’s fees if they successfully present and resolve a claim, either through a negotiated settlement or litigation. In reality, of course, the government usually requires a waiver of Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) fees as part of a settlement. When winning or partially winning a case before a board or court, a contractor has the right to file an Application for Attorney’s Fees to recover attorney’s fees subject to the statutory limit of $125/hour and various upward adjustments for inflation. Unfortunately, winning is not always enough.

Continue Reading The Hidden Hurdle: Why Recovering Legal Fees Under EAJA Is Not a Guarantee for Contractors
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On August 22, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint-in-intervention in a previously filed whistleblower suit under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) against the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and Georgia Tech Research Corp. (GTRC), an affiliate of Georgie Tech, for falsely representing its compliance with Department of Defense (DoD) cybersecurity requirements. Former and current Georgia Tech cybersecurity team employees brought the initial whistleblower lawsuit.

Continue Reading DOJ Looks To Sting Georgia Tech Under the False Claims Act: The Perils of Cybersecurity Non-Compliance
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Under the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) mentor-protégé program, smaller businesses are afforded the tools to compete for government contracts by partnering with larger businesses that serve as mentors to the small businesses. In theory, both the mentor and the protégé benefit under the program, with the mentor gaining access to set-aside small business contracts that it would not otherwise be eligible for and the protégé receiving the advantages of the mentor’s experience, knowledge, and resources. But what happens when the two businesses do not get along, and one company is ready to give the boot to the other? The case between Yorktown Systems Group, Inc. and Threat Tec provides some helpful insight.

Continue Reading Mentor-Protégé Program Pitfalls: Insights from Yorktown and Threat Tec’s Dispute
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By Stephen Tobin

In 2021, the DOJ announced its Civil-Cyber-Fraud Initiative, which focused on contractors who fail to follow required cybersecurity standards. The initiative is aimed at accountability for knowingly providing deficient cybersecurity products or services, knowingly misrepresenting their cybersecurity practices or protocols, or knowingly violating obligations to monitor and report cybersecurity incidents and breaches.

Continue Reading DOJ Is Taking Cybersecurity Seriously; Contractors Should Too
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The System for Award Management (SAM) is the official website for registering to do business with the U.S. government, such as competing for federal procurement contracts. Under FAR 52.204-7, “an Offeror is required to be registered in SAM when submitting an offer or quotation, and shall be registered until time of award, during performance, and through final payment of any contract …resulting from the solicitation.” In the recent GAO protest of TLS Joint Venture, LLC (TLS), the awardee of a Navy contract for custodial services learned the hard way that maintaining active registration in SAM from the time of its initial offer until the agency’s award of the contract is a strict requirement, and that non-compliance can produce harsh results.

Continue Reading What in the SAM Hill Happened to My Contract?
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Construction law is a complex field that intersects with various other industries and legal fields, one being the maritime industry. In nearly twenty years of practicing construction law, I have often experienced the connection between these sophisticated areas of law and the implications of each on various projects, such as the construction of docks, breakwaters, piers, bridges, dredging and beach nourishment projects. In this blog post, we will explore the intricate relationship between these two legal realms by diving into a primer on maritime liens.

Continue Reading Navigating the Waters Beyond Construction Law: Unveiling the Ties Between Construction and Maritime Liens
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Sanford Federal, Inc., the selected awardee for a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) contract, learned the hard way that a contractor simply cannot ignore a size protest, regardless of its actual merit.

On August 8, 2023, the VA issued an RFQ for boiler plant safety device testing, calibration and inspection for one of its facilities in Arizona. The RFQ was set aside entirely for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses and assigned NAICS code 238290, Other Building Equipment. The corresponding size standard for this code was $22 million in average annual receipts. The VA received two timely quotes and selected Sanford for the award. The non-awardee, Caldaia Controls, Inc., filed a protest with the contracting officer asserting that Sanford was not a small business because it received significant contract awards between 2019 and 2023, which, when averaged, exceeded the procurement’s applicable size standard. The contracting officer forwarded the protest to the cognizant SBA Area Office (Area Office).

Continue Reading An SBA Public Service Announcement: If You See Something, Say Something
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In Steiner Construction Co., Inc., the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) award of a $1.19 billion small business set-aside shipbuilding contract to a business concern that was later determined to be other than a small business. The protestor argued that the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Hearing and Appeals (OHA) decision to vacate an earlier SBA Area Office’s size determination that found the awardee to be an eligible small business concern required that the USCG terminate the award.

Continue Reading It’s No Big Deal: How a Non-Small Business Won a Small Business Set-Aside Contract