Lack of Judges Leads to Longer Litigation Times
During the past three years, the number of judicial vacancies in U.S. federal courts has quickly grown. While there has been a flurry of individuals recently nominated to fill the vacant judgeships, many positions remain open. This has led to clogged dockets and increased the length of time it takes cases to be resolved in federal courts. Of the 890 authorized judgeships in federal district courts and courts of appeals, 147—16 percent—are vacant. Many of the judicial positions have been . . . Read More
HUBZone Maps Will Be Frozen Until December 2021
The Small Business Administration (“SBA”) has made changes to the HUBZone maps to implement the new changes from the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (“NDAA”). In December , we wrote about the changes to the HUBZone Program that would result from the 2018 NDAA, which included a requirement that the HUBZone map stay the same until at least January 1, 2020. Since then, SBA has taken the following steps: All areas that were listed as “Redesignated” on 12/12/17 . . . Read More
The Weekly Update for March 23, 2018
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING McCaskill Pushes the Department of Homeland Security to Hold Government Contractors Accountable for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse of Taxpayer Dollars According to an article on hsgac.senate.gov , U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is calling for answers after a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General highlighted problems with the department’s Suspension and Debarment Program. The program is tasked with penalizing contractors that have engaged in . . . Read More
Cybersecurity Update—Round II
As part of our continuing effort to keep you updated with new developments relating to compliance with the Department of Defense (DoD) Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 252.204-7012, this blog post provides a link to the long-anticipated template for a system security plan (SSP) and other key information related to implementation of the security controls set forth in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171. Template for SSP The Computer Security Resource Center portion of . . . Read More
ASBCA Confirms That It Has Jurisdiction to Entertain Fraud-Based Defenses
The Federal Circuit’s holding in Laguna Construction Co. v. Carter seemed, when the case was decided in 2016, to scale back the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals’ (“ASBCA”) jurisdiction to entertain fraud-related defenses. 828 F.3d 1364. In that case, the government asserted a defense that Laguna could not recover in its claims because several of the company’s officials had pled guilty to a kickback scheme involving those contracts. The ASBCA found in the Government’s favor, relying on the guilty . . . Read More
Pre-Award Notifications in a Set-Aside Procurement: Can I Get a Debriefing Now?
If you pursue contracts that are set aside for small businesses, you have probably noticed that if your proposal is not successful, you will get what is called a “pre-award” notification from the agency informing you of the identity of “apparently successful offeror.” If you receive such a notice, you may be eager to get a debriefing to find out why your company was not identified as the “apparently successful offeror.” However, receiving a pre-award notification on a set-aside contract . . . Read More
The Weekly Update for March 16, 2018
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING San Diego Communications Company Pays More Than $12 Million to Settle False Claim Act Allegations Regarding Eligibility for Small Business Innovation and Research Contracts According to a news release by the Department of Justice, TrellisWare Technologies, Inc., a communications company located in San Diego, has agreed to pay $12,177,631.90 to settle civil False Claims Act allegations that it was ineligible for multiple Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) contracts it had entered into with government defense agencies. TrellisWare . . . Read More
The Buy American Act and Trade Agreements Act: Understanding Federal Domestic Preference Requirements
Presented by Jon Williams and Jackie Unger Click here to view the recorded session. Session Description: As part of his goal to “make America great again,” the President has routinely stated his intent to “buy American and hire American.” In an effort to make progress on this front, President Trump signed Executive Order 13788 on April 18, 2017, aimed at tougher enforcement of the “Buy American Laws” which are those laws requiring or providing a preference for the purchase of goods, products, . . . Read More
HUBZone Definition of “Employee” Not So Black-and-White
In a recent decision, HUBZone Appeal of Q Services, Inc., the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) clarified that the number of hours worked by a person does not bar SBA from examining the totality of the circumstances to determine whether that individual qualifies as an employee for HUBZone program eligibility purposes. Under SBA’s HUBZone regulations, if a person works a minimum of 40 hours per month (whether employed on a full-time, part-time, or other basis), that individual will be treated as . . . Read More
The Weekly Update for March 9, 2018
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING Claims Court Could Receive Record Number of Protests in 2018 According to an article in the Federal Contracts Report, the United States Court of Federal Claims (COFC) is on course to receive an unprecedented 200 bid protest cases in calendar year 2018. In each of the past 15 years, between 100 and 130 protests were filed with the COFC, making 2018’s potential docket the busiest in the courts history. This large increase can be partly attributed to a . . . Read More