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Todd Overman

Todd Overman is the chair of the firm’s Government Contracts practice and Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office.  He has over twenty years of experience advising companies on the unique aspects of doing business with the federal government. Over the last decade, he has advised on more than 50 transactions involving the purchase or sale of a government contractor.

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We are dusting off our boots and heading to Tennessee. We’ll be at the SCS Annual Government Contracting Seminar in Oak Ridge, TN on October 28.

The conference is designed specifically for government contractors and will cover various topics relevant to the industry including compliance and proposal writing.

Our presentation, “Bid Protests and SBA Size/Status Protests: Filing and Defense Strategies” will include the following components:Continue Reading Upcoming Seminar on October 28, 2014: Bid Protests and SBA Size/Status Protests: Filing and Defense Strategies

The Court of Federal Claims recently held that a company could not rely on its affiliate’s Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contractor status in order to comply with the solicitation. The procurement at issue involved the purchase of glucose test strips from an FSS contract. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the solicitation prohibited entering into the FSS blanket purchase agreement (BPA) with a non-schedule contractor. However, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) awarded the BPA to Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corp. (Abbott), who did not have the required FSS contract but its affiliate Abbott Laboratories Inc. (ALI) did. Arkray (the protester) argued that Abbott improperly relied on the FSS of its corporate affiliate to provide the strips.

The court had previously remanded the case to the DHA to determine whether Abbott could “properly hold itself out as” having an FSS as required by the solicitation. On remand, the DHA decided to proceed with the BPA award because it concluded Abbott was either acting as ALI’s agent under its FSS contract or the companies were sufficiently closely related enough to allow Abbott to rely on ALI’s FSS contract to satisfy the terms of the solicitation.Continue Reading Offeror Needs Own FSS Contract to be Eligible for FSS BPA

On September 24, 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs published a Final Rule in the Federal Register that makes changes to the regulations implementing the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act, as amended (VEVRAA) at 41 CFR Part 60-300.

VEVRAA prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating in employment against protected veterans and requires these employers to take affirmative action to recruit, hire, promote, and retain these veterans.   Generally, VEVRAA requires Federal contractors and subcontractors to annually report on the total number of their employees who belong to the categories of veterans protected under VEVRAA and the total number of those protected veterans who were hired during the period covered by the report.  The new rule strengthens the affirmative action provisions of the regulations to aid contractors in their efforts to recruit and hire protected veterans and improve job opportunities for protected veterans.Continue Reading New Reporting and Data Requirements for Veteran Hiring to Begin in 2015

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) published in the Federal Register two proposed rules to revise small business size standards in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Sectors 31-33 (Manufacturing) and industries with employee-based size standards that are not a part of NAICS Sectors 31-33, Sector 42 (Wholesale Trade), and Sectors 44-45 (Retail Trade).  As part of its comprehensive size standards review required by the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, the SBA evaluated employee-based size standards for all 364 industries in NAICS Sectors 31-33, and 57 industries and five exceptions that are not in NAICS Sectors 31-33, 42, or 44‑45 to determine whether they should be retained or revised.

Increases in Size Standards

The first rule proposes to increase size standards for 209 industries in Sectors 31-33.  For instance, Burial Casket Manufacturing (NAICS 339995) and Dog and Cat Food Manufacturing (311111) size standards would increase from 500 to 1,000 (number of employees), and Frozen Specialty Food Manufacturing size standard would increase from 500 to 1,250 (number of employees). The SBA also proposes to increase the refining capacity component of the Petroleum Refiners (NAICS 324110) size standard from 125,000 to 200,000 barrels per calendar day total capacity for businesses that are primarily engaged in petroleum refining. The proposed rule also eliminates the requirement that 90 percent of a refiner’s output being delivered should be refined by the bidder.Continue Reading SBA Proposed Rule Will Increase Size Standards in Over 200 Manufacturing and Trade Industries

The Court of Federal Claims in American Gov’t Props. & Houma SSA v. United States recently restated the general prohibition on assignment of federal government contracts and laid out the necessary steps contractors must follow in order to avoid an improper assignment of a lease agreement.

The case involved a contract to design, build and then lease to the Social Security Administration an office building in Houma, Louisiana. The General Services Administration (GSA) terminated the contract for default citing lack of progress. The plaintiffs brought suit alleging termination was improper and sought damages as a result of the alleged breach of contract. The defendant moved to dismiss on the grounds that plaintiff lacked standing to maintain suit against the government due to an improper assignment of the contract. The defendant alleged that the contract was assigned to Houma SSA, LLC (Houma) by American Government Properties (AGP), the original contracting party in violation of the Contracts Act.Continue Reading Can a contractor assign their leasing agreement with the federal government to another party?

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From the Bass, Berry & Sims Blog Network

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