The Section 809 Panel’s Recommendations on Bid Protests May Cause Major Headaches for Contractors
In Section 809 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2016 , Congress created a panel, known as the Section 809 Panel, to review and to provide recommendations on how to streamline and improve the Department of Defense’s (“DOD”) acquisition process. The Section 809 Panel issued the first volume of its report in January 2018. The second volume, slated for release in June 2018, may include sweeping recommendations for a drastic overhaul of the bid protest process for DOD procurements. While a successful offeror on any . . . Read More
An Instructive Warning to Contractors of the Need to Understand CDA Requirements
A few months back, my colleague, Michelle Litteken, wrote a blog post titled “ Don’t Get Lost Filing and Prosecuting CDA Claims .” She discussed a decision, Securiforce International America, LLC v. United States , in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a federal contractor was required under the Contract Disputes Act (“CDA”) to demand a specific amount of money (called a “sum certain”) in a CDA claim to its Contracting Officer (“CO”) for non-monetary relief if, by granting such relief, the contractor would be entitled to monetary damages. . . . Read More
Corporate Record-Keeping and Compliance, or “Do I Really Need to Hold a Shareholders’ Meeting If I Am the Only Shareholder?”
When we are asked to review client corporate record-keeping, it is far too often the case that such record-keeping has fallen by the wayside and been overlooked. We understand that, for small businesses and/or entities with only a handful of equity owners, corporate record-keeping can seem a tedious or expensive chore. Some clients have asked “Do I really need to hold a shareholders meeting if I am the only shareholder?” The short answer is, “Yes, you do.” Both corporations and . . . Read More
The Future is Here: GAO Bid Protests to Be Filed Electronically Starting May 1, 2018
On April 2, 2018, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) issued a final rule, which, effective May 1, 2018, implements an electronic filing system for bid protests known as the Electronic Protest Docketing System (“EPDS”). Historically, GAO has only accepted protest filings via e-mail, fax, regular mail, or hand delivery. However, in 2014, Congress directed GAO to establish an electronic filing and dissemination system. Thus, the concept for EPDS was born. After years of development, EDPS was taken for a “test drive” . . . Read More
High Court Breaks from Precedent: Holds FLSA Exemptions Are Not to Be Narrowly Construed
In a 5–4 decision , the U.S. Supreme Court last Monday held that auto service advisors—car dealership employees who consult with customers about service needs and suggest repair services—are exempt from overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The decision follows a 2011 Department of Labor rule that excluded these service advisors from the exemption. As a reminder, the FLSA requires that companies pay covered employees time and a half for all hours worked in excess of 40 each . . . Read More
DoD Issues Class Deviation to Implement Enhanced Postaward Debriefing Requirements from FY 2018 NDAA
On Thursday, March 22, the Department of Defense (“DoD”) issued a Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) class deviation in light of the enhanced postaward debriefing rights required by Section 818 of the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) for Fiscal Year 2018. The NDAA, which was signed into law on December 12, 2017, requires revisions to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (“DFARS”) to implement a number of changes to debriefing requirements for DoD procurements. For instance, the NDAA requires a written . . . Read More
SAM, I AM: New Verification Requirement for SAM.gov Likely to Delay New Registrations
Registering with SAM.gov is a fact of life for government contractors. And, from what we often hear, a challenging fact at that. Indeed, it can be difficult to navigate the registration process, and it is time-consuming. Plus, processing times can be slow, from a few weeks to longer in extreme cases. These realities of the SAM.gov registration process can cause stress for a new entity that is registering in SAM.gov for the first time and needs the registration completed before . . . Read More
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
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