Sorting Out NITAAC’s Amendments to CIO-SP4: Federal Drive’s Tom Temin Interviews Cy Alba
The NIH has long operated a series of popular governmentwide acquisition contracts through its Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center, or NITAAC. The solicitation for the new vehicle known as CIO-SP4 was barely out before it ran into protests. Since then NITAAC issued eight amendments to the solicitation, causing the industry to scratch its head. To help sort it all out, Cy Alba , one of the protesting attorneys and a partner at PilieroMazza , joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin . Visit this link to hear the full . . . Read More
What President Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Means for Government Contractors and Private Employers
With the rise in COVID-19 cases across the country in the wake of the Delta variant, local, state, and federal officials have been taking steps to revise guidance, update recommendations, and revisit plans and protocols. In one such significant measure, President Biden announced yesterday that all onsite federal employees and contractors are now required to be vaccinated or face strict testing, social distancing, and masking requirements. Following similar measures from several states for state-employed personnel, the requirements certainly have implications . . . Read More
Weekly Update for Government Contractors and Commercial Businesses – July 29, 2021
If you have questions concerning the content below, please visit this link . WEBINAR: Risk Prevention Strategies: The High Cost of Employee Misclassification—What Employers Should Know, August 4, 2021, Sarah Nash and Matthew Kreiser. Read more here . LABOR & EMPLOYMENT DOL Announces Proposed Rulemaking to Increase Wages for Workers on Government Contracts The Department of Labor (DOL) announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish standards and procedures to implement and enforce Executive Order 14026, “Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors,” (EO), which was signed by President Biden on . . . Read More
Risk Prevention Strategies: Legal Considerations in Crisis Management – Planning, Mitigation, and Recovery
Cy Alba Comments on NITAAC’s CIO-SP4: Changes Impact Small, Large Businesses Alike
Cy Alba , a partner with the law firm PilieroMazza and who represented some of the companies that filed protests on July 2 which prompted NITAAC to take corrective action on all issues presented, said NITAAC’s amendment and change is causing two major problems. “For small businesses, who cannot simply reform into joint ventures with large firms who are not their mentor because it would make the joint venture a large business, it is forcing them to ‘no-bid,’ wasting hundreds of thousands in bid and proposal dollars,” Alba . . . Read More
CIO-SP4 Amendment 7: Major Changes for Small Business and Large Business Prime / Subcontractor Teams
The National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) just issued major changes to the Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners 4 (CIO-SP4) Request for Proposals (RFP) under Amendment 7 to the RFP. These changes will impact both small and large business teams who intend to rely on subcontractors (i.e. FAR 9.601(2) Contractor Team Arrangement (CTA) members). For small business teams, Amendment 7 clarifies that only first-tier subcontractors can be used for purposes of meeting the requirements for . . . Read More
What Does Bill Cosby’s Overturned Conviction Mean for Your Fifth Amendment Rights Against Self-Incrimination?
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently overturned Bill Cosby’s 2018 conviction for crimes of sexual assault. Most have focused on the justness of this outcome. But the court’s 79-page opinion also has implications for how witnesses in civil cases navigate the potential risk of self-incrimination—including witnesses testifying on behalf of a corporation as a corporate designee under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6). As we discussed in our blog on invoking the Fifth Amendment in a civil deposition, the privilege can . . . Read More
DOD Cancels $10 Billion JEDI Contract, Takes New Direction on Cloud Procurement
On July 6, 2021, the Department of Defense (DOD) canceled its $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud procurement, close to two years after issuing the award to Microsoft and merely two months after the U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued a sealed decision denying the Department of Justice’s and Microsoft’s motions to dismiss Amazon Web Services’ (Amazon) bid protest challenging the award. This end to the JEDI saga will likely shape the decisions of other agencies as they . . . Read More
Law360 Quotes Lauren Brier on Competition and Cybersecurity Issues in JEDI Replacement
The replacement of the Pentagon’s highly litigated $10 billion JEDI contract with a tentative arrangement for Microsoft and Amazon to provide cloud computing services could spark new lawsuits over a perceived lack of competition. Although the new Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability deal that replaces the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure acquisition is a multiaward contract, the U.S. Department of Defense indicated it expects to award deals only to JEDI awardee Microsoft Corp. and Amazon Web Services Inc. . . . [H]aving . . . Read More
Federal News Network Interviews Cy Alba on CIO-SP4 Recent Developments
All of the confusion and consternation over the solicitation for the CIO-SP4 IT services governmentwide acquisition contract finally has boiled over. Five companies filed pre-award protests with the Government Accountability Office after the National Institutes of Health Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) failed to clarify several questions about its request for proposals. . . . The law forces companies to protest Cy Alba , a partner with the law firm PilieroMazza , represents four of the protestors and has heard from several other . . . Read More