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My partner Tim Furin and I attended the FY2020 DOD & Federal Agency Program Briefings this week on March 12 in Herndon, Virginia. The Briefings are part of the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Capital Week. The program provides SAME members a chance to hear about the projected upcoming fiscal year’s engineering, construction, and environmental programs from contracting representatives, and Senior Executive Service leaders from the engineering components of the military services and select federal agencies. Representatives from the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Army, Navy, Air Force, General Services Administration (GSA), Departments of State and Energy, as well as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Forest Service all made presentations. The presentations are available on SAME’s Capital Week website.

Continue Reading A Look Ahead: What to Expect in Federal Construction Contracting in FY2020

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On November 27, 2018, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced that it will consolidate the GSA’s 24 Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) into a single schedule for products and services. The GSA stated that the changes were intended to “modernize federal acquisition” and “make the government buying and selling experience easy, efficient, and modern.”

Through the MAS, also referred to as the GSA Schedules and Federal Supply Schedules, the GSA establishes long-term, government-wide contracts with commercial firms. Approximately $31 billion is spent through MAS each year on a wide variety of supplies and services. Prior to the announced changes, the GSA maintained 24 separate MAS organized by industry or service ranging from IT Procurement (Schedule 70) to Sports Equipment, Signs and Trophies (Schedule 78). Under that preexisting framework, a vendor selling a variety of supplies and/or services to the government was often required to participate in multiple schedules that each included their own terms and conditions. As a result of the announced changes, and the corresponding consolidation of all MAS into a single schedule, all contractors will be able to sell their products and services through a single program with a uniform set of terms and conditions.

Continue Reading GSA Announces Consolidation of Multiple Award Schedules

GAO Interprets Protest Filing Deadlines in the Wake of Enhanced Debriefing Rules - Calendar with important date

The Department of Defense (DoD) enhanced post-award debriefing requirements, contained in Section 818 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (NDAA), have been a large topic of conversation this past year. In January 2018, our Government Contracts team detailed the specifics of these new requirements, which includes, among other things, the mandatory question and answer period for debriefings. On March 22, 2018, DoD issued a class deviation letter titled “Enhanced Post-award Debriefing Rights,” (Enhanced Debriefing Rules) which implements the question and answer period requirements. Notably, however, the Enhanced Debriefing Rules do not address the other new requirements in Section 818 of the NDAA, such as those involving the release, under certain circumstances, of redacted source selection award determinations.

Continue Reading GAO Interprets Protest Filing Deadlines in the Wake of Enhanced Debriefing Rules

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Over the past couple of months, we have had several clients contact us to discuss issues involving Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCIs). In each case, it seemed like there was some confusion either by the government, the contractor, or both, regarding what amounted to a conflict of interest and how having one could impact contract performance. In most cases, we were able to work with the contracting officer and develop a mitigation plan to avoid, neutralize, or mitigate each OCI successfully. This blog post will cover the basics about OCIs and discuss some ways that contractors can work with the government to mitigate them.

Continue Reading What is an Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) and How Can a Contractor Work With the Government to Mitigate One

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The Europe District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting an Industry Day on August 15, 2018 in Tel Aviv. The event begins at 09:00 at The Ritz-Carlton Herzlia.

This conference will present an overview of upcoming construction projects in Israel and provide U.S. firms with an opportunity to meet potential Israeli subcontractors or suppliers.

Although these construction projects are performed in Israel, the law requires that the prime contracts must be awarded to U.S. firms and they, in turn, are permitted to subcontract up to 75% of the work to Israeli companies. Given the millions of dollars that have been obligated to the program, there are many opportunities for American and Israeli firms to work together.  Continue Reading Upcoming Industry Day in Tel Aviv

The Judgment Fund was established by Congress in 1956 to alleviate the need for specific legislation following every successful claim against the United States. The purpose behind the Judgment Fund was to eliminate the procedural burdens involved in getting an individual appropriation from Congress, allowing for the prompt payment of judgments and reducing the amount of interest accrued between the time the judgment was awarded and payment was made. Although the Judgment Fund successfully eliminated the need for legislative action in almost every case, and in most cases resulted in prompter payments to successful claimants, it also had the unintended consequence of incentivizing procuring agencies to avoid settling meritorious claims in favor of prolonged litigation. Specifically, an agency could avoid making payment from its own appropriated funds if it refused to settle a case and instead sought a decision from a court, subsequently providing it access to the Judgment Fund which draws money straight from the Treasury. Congress eliminated this problem when it passed the Contracts Disputes Act (CDA) of 1978, which requires agencies to reimburse the Judgment Fund with appropriated funds that are current at the time of the judgment against the agency. Although contracting officers are no longer incentivized to avoid settlement, the source and availability of funds can still impact whether or not they decide to settle a claim because there are differences between how a judgment is funded and how a settlement can be funded.  Continue Reading How the Judgment Fund’s Availability Impacts a Contracting Officer’s Decision to Settle a Claim

Last week, I attended the ChallengeHER event in Arlington, VA where I had the pleasure of meeting other females in federal contracting. ChallengeHER events, which are organized by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and American Express (AMEX), are designed to supply women business owners with information and resources regarding the SBA’s Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB) Program in order to provide more federal government contracting opportunities for small businesses owned by women.

One thing was made clear at the event – federal agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD), are indeed striving to achieve their goals of awarding 5% of their prime contracting dollars to WOSBs. Ms. Amy Kim, the SBA’s WOSB Program Manager, informed attendees that although federal agencies fell just shy of meeting the 5% goal in FY2017, they did award $20.8 Billion contracting dollars to WOSBs. While this number also includes contracting dollars awarded to WOSBs under other SBA socio-economic programs, it was encouraging to learn that FY2017 saw $723.5 Million in WOSB set-aside contract award dollars, which is a 60% increase from FY2016! Several representatives from the DoD discussed how the number of set-aside contract award dollars can continue to increase. Continue Reading Reminder to Women Owned Businesses – Take Advantage of Federal Contracting Opportunities!

Effective May 25, 2018, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) amended its regulations regarding a contractor’s size and/or socio-economic status following a novation, merger, or acquisition. Specifically, through a “technical correction,” the SBA revised its regulations to dictate that when a company becomes “other than small” or no longer has a certain socio-economic status (veteran-owned, woman-owned, HUBZone, etc.) as a result of a novation, merger, or acquisition, the business is no longer eligible to compete for set-aside task orders on multiple-award contracts held by the company. This change in eligibility is applicable even where the contracting officer does not specifically request a recertification.  Continue Reading Contractor Beware: SBA Expands Impact of Novation, Merger, or Acquisition on Size and Socio-Economic Status

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We recently hit the road with Onvia, a leading government market intelligence company that was just acquired by Deltek. The combination of Onvia and Deltek’s GovWin IQ provides enterprise, mid-market, and small business customers with the most comprehensive set of federal, state, and local government contracting leads and market intelligence.  Continue Reading On the Road to Connect Business and Government!

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The National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) for Fiscal Year 2018 includes enhanced post-award debriefing requirements for the Department of Defense (“DoD”). This change is likely a response to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s (“OFPP”) January 5, 2017 memorandum. The memorandum debunked certain misconceptions about the debriefing process and encouraged agencies to adopt best practices and maximize the value of debriefings. One such myth that the OFPP’s memorandum debunked was that debriefings always lead to protests. The memorandum advocated for more transparency in the debriefing process, explaining that, in fact, an effective debriefing process can greatly reduce the frequency of protests. Continue Reading Good News for Department of Defense Contractors: Enhanced Post-Award Debriefing Requirements are on Their Way!