EEOC Issues New Pregnancy Discrimination Guidelines
On July 14, 2014, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in a split decision, issued new guidelines regarding its enforcement of pregnancy discrimination laws. Although the guidance should be carefully reviewed, among the most notable changes is that the EEOC now interprets the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) to require employers to provide reasonable accommodation to employees who have work restrictions due to pregnancy even if the employee does not qualify as disabled or is not regarded as disabled under the Americans with . . . Read More
Attorney-Client Privilege Protects Against Production of Internal Investigations of Fraud
By Katie Flood If you have been worrying about a potential issue related to an audit or False Claims Act (FCA) complaint, but have been nervous to proceed with an internal investigation in case those results should come back damning and later be disclosed a court case, there is good news from the DC Circuit. In a petition filed in the case In re Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc., DC Circuit No. 14-5055 (June 27, 2014), the DC Circuit overturned the . . . Read More
Minimum Wage for Contractor Employees on Fast Track to Your Contracts
At some point in the past few months, you may have heard about Executive Order 13658 (EO), issued on February 12, 2014, wherein President Barack Obama establishes a $10.10 per hour minimum wage for employees of federal contractors and subcontractors by January 2015, adjusted annually thereafter by the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. There is a disagreement about the actual impact the EO will have since most federal contractors and subcontractors subject to the provisions . . . Read More
GAO Affirms Timeline for SBA Approval of Joint Venture Agreements
By Kelly DiGrado The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently affirmed that joint venture (JV) agreements need not be approved by the Small Business Administration (SBA) prior to submission of a proposal for an 8(a) set aside contract. See BGI-Fiore JV, LLC, B-409520 (May 29, 2014). The case arose in the context of a pre-award protest of NASA’s decision to eliminate of BGI-Fiore’s proposal from competition for an 8(a) set aside contract. NASA rejected the proposal of BGI-Fiore, JV, LLC, a JV between . . . Read More
Prompt Payment Act Interest Decreases
Effective July 1, 2014, the Prompt Payment Act (PPA) and Contract Dispute Act (CDA) interest rates have decreased to 2% per annum. See 79 Fed. Reg. 33647 (June 12, 2014). Since 2008, when the PPA and CDA interest rates were as high as 5 5/8 % per annum, the interest rates under the PPA and CDA have trended downward to a low of 1 3/8 % per annum for the first half of 2013. This meant that contractors were recovering next to nothing for . . . Read More
Be more. Do more. Advancing the Missions of Others through Community Service
By Kimi Murakami What can you do to give back to the community? What do you have to offer others? Law firms with a conscious, like PilieroMazza, encourage their employees to ask themselves these questions and to participate in giving back to their communities through pro bono services, financial donations, participation of their time and other resources to causes that they believe in. The platforms for giving back to the community take on a variety of forms at PilieroMazza. Finding . . . Read More
Federal Circuit Permits the Department of Veterans Affairs to Ignore the Rule of 2 for FSS Orders
By Alex Levine A recent Federal Circuit decision could have substantial implications on whether the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) choses to set aside work for veteran-owned small businesses (“VOSBs”) and service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses (“SDVOSBs”) when ordering goods and services off of a Federal Supply Schedule (“FSS”). Under applicable statutory and regulatory authority, the VA is obligated to award contracts of a certain dollar threshold on the basis of a competition restricted to small business concerns owned and controlled . . . Read More
It’s Not Just About Being Disadvantaged: An Overview of the SBA’s Potential for Success Requirement for 8(a) Program Entry
Gaining entry to the Small Business Administration’s (“SBA”) 8(a) Business Development Program (the “8(a) Program”) is not just about proving a social and economic disadvantage. If you are a small business owner thinking about applying to the 8(a) Program, there is another eligibility requirement you need to understand: potential for success. A business applying for 8(a) status must possess reasonable prospects for success competing in the private sector before it can be admitted to the 8(a) Program. What does that . . . Read More
Recent Supreme Court Decision Reaffirms Tribal Sovereign Immunity for Commercial Activities Conducted Off-Reservation
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that, absent a waiver or Congressional action to the contrary, the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity applies to lawsuits arising from a tribe’s commercial activities, even if they take place off of Indian lands. Kiowa Tribe of Okla. v. Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., 523 U.S. 751, 758 (1998). Since that decision, commercial enterprises owned by Indian tribes have entered into increasingly varied lines of business and have enjoyed increasing amount of success. With that success . . . Read More
Inflation Adjustments Coming to Small Business Size Standards
On June 12, 2014, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued an interim rule, which goes into effect on July 14. This new rule increases the size standards applicable to nearly every NAICS code used in Federal Contracting (some were not adjusted, especially cases where the size is set by statue). This was the first time that the SBA adjusted any of the size standards to account for inflation since 2008. Given that many sectors of the economy are starting to . . . Read More