Legal Information & Resources for Federal Construction Contractors
By: Edward T. DeLisle
This week the Department of Veteran’s Affairs announced that it will require all companies that wish to receive set-aside contracts as veteran-owned, or service-disabled, veteran-owned, businesses to verify their status. This announcement was made as part of the 2010 Veteran’s Benefit Act and is geared toward eliminating fraud and abuse. As…
By: Edward T. DeLisle
On October 4, 2010, the Small Business Administration issued a Final Rule allowing for the implementation of the long-awaited set-aside program for women-owned businesses. The program is designed to assist federal agencies in achieving the current 5% statutory goal for the award of contracts to such companies. Pursuant to the current…
By: Edward T. DeLisle & Craig Schroeder
Last year, the United States Association of Veterans in Business (“USAVETBIZ”) urged Congress for a government-wide preference in contracting and set-aside programs that extended the existing preference for service-disabled veteran owned small businesses (“SDVOSB”) to all veteran-owned small businesses. While that has not happened yet, the set aside…
By: Edward T. DeLisle
On September 23, 2010, we wrote an article regarding the current status of the HUBZone priority fight between the GAO, the Court of Federal Claims and a number of federal agencies. That article followed another that we wrote on this issue on August 27, 2010. In a series of…
By: Edward T. DeLisle
On August 27th, we posted an article regarding the recent Court of Federal Claims case, DGR Associates, Inc. v. United States. In that case, the protesting contractor took the position that the government agency, the Air Force, failed to follow the direction of Congress in determining how to set aside…
By: Edward T. DeLisle
On August 13th, the Court of Federal Claims temporarily ended a controversy regarding how agencies go about setting aside contracts for certain qualified small businesses. DGR Associates, Inc. v. United States involved a decision by the Air Force to issue a set aside contract for qualified 8(a) companies. The project involved housing maintenance…
By: Edward T. DeLisle & Lori Wisniewski Azzara
On March 4, 2010, the Small Business Administration released a proposed rule that, if adopted, would significantly expand federal contracting opportunities for eligible women-owned small businesses (“WOSB”). The SBA conducted a study that identified 83 industries, based upon the NAICS code, in which WOSBs are either “underrepresented&rdquo…
By: Lane F. Kelman
On May 3, 2010, the SBA’s definition of the term "employee" of a Historically Underutilized Business Zone ("HUBZone") was amended. The new definition establishes a more definitive but stringent reading of when a person is considered an employee for HUBZone eligibility purposes. (See the SBA’s HUBZone regulations). The construction industry…
By: Edward T. DeLisle
On April 26, 2010, President Obama issued an executive order to study the way in which the government provides assistance to veteran-owned and service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses. This executive order could not have come at a better time. It appears that the government has a two-fold problem: achieving federally mandated goals for…
A Final Rule governing Service Disabled Veteran-Owned small Business Concerns (“SDVOSB”) was published in the Federal Register on February 8, 2010. This law requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) to verify ownership and control of veteran-owned small businesses, including service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. The final rule also defines the eligibility requirements for businesses…
