Government Contracts

This week I will be in Tampa, Florida speaking at the two-day, interactive Florida GovCon Summit presented by Solvability. I will speak on the topic of, “Growing Your Business Through Joint Ventures” at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29. Recent changes in federal regulations have presented businesses with options and strategies for growth, this session…

From March 29-30, I will be in Tampa, Florida taking part in the Florida GovCon Summit presented by Solvability. This two-day, interactive summit features speakers with deep and broad roots in federal contracting. The panel session I will be speaking on is titled, “Maximizing Your Value for Exit.” This panel will offer insight into how…

As we previously reported, following the start of the Trump Administration, Congress has moved aggressively to overturn regulations passed in the final days of the Obama Administration through the rarely-used powers in the Congressional Review Act (CRA). This focus on CRA actions, which is in keeping with the Trump Administration’s broader goal of eliminating costly regulations, has taken time and attention in the early days of the 115th Congress because the CRA gives Congress a limited amount of time to reverse regulations.  One of the rules that has been targeted for elimination is the Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces rule, a rule subject to much debate and controversy since its enactment in August 2016. Recent Senate action makes it likely that the rule, which would have imposed billions of dollars in costs on taxpayers over the next decade, will be eliminated next week.
Continue Reading Last Straw for the Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces Rule – Congress to Take Final Vote on Repeal

Just a few days into Donald Trump’s presidency, he has already taken actions that raise potential challenges and opportunities for federal contractors. In his Memorandum of January 23, 2017, Trump imposed a hiring freeze on civilian employees.  The order also states that “[c]ontracting outside the Government to circumvent the intent of this memorandum shall not be permitted.”  The order requires the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to “recommend a long-term plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through attrition” within 90 days (i.e., late April of this year). The order will expire upon implementation of the OMB plan.  In the short-term, this creates obvious challenges for agencies and their contractors seeking new employees to perform government services.
Continue Reading New Administration Signals New Challenges and Opportunities for Federal Contractors

On February 2 the House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution 37, which would nullify the Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces rule issued on August 25, 2016.  If the identical pending joint resolution is passed by the Senate, S. J. Res. 12, and signed by the President, the entire rule will have no force and effect and no similar regulation could be issued in the future without express Congressional  authorization.  The legislation did not reverse the accompanying Department of Labor guidance or the underlying Obama Executive Order, but both would also be effectively nullified by voiding the regulation.
Continue Reading Congress Acts to Rescind the Already-Enjoined Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Regulation and Other Last-Minute Obama Administration Rules

In an article published by Law360, I provided insight examining the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) rejection of bid protests questioning an unusual contracting model based on point-scoring that emphasized technical factors over cost. In this case, the General Services Administration (GSA) awarded a $65 billion IDIQ contract for IT services, Alliant II, to 60 of…

In an article published by BNA’s Federal Contracts Report, I discussed three of the most costly of President Obama’s 2016 Executive Orders impacting government contractors, orders that are likely to be overturned by President-elect Trump. In the article, I argue that, while the Executive Orders – Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces, Minimum Wage, and Sick…

The FAR Council issued a final rule on December 20, 2016, amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to add FAR Subpart 24.3, requiring privacy training for all contractor employees who (1) access a system of records; (2) handle personally identifiable information (PII); or (3) design, develop, maintain, or operate a system of records. A “system of records” is a “group of any records under the control of any agency from which information is retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular assigned to the individual.” 5 U.S.C. § 552a(a)(5); FAR 24.101.
Continue Reading The FAR Council Wishes Contractors a Happy New ‘Privacy Training’

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17 NDAA), signed into law by President Obama on December 23, includes limitations on a low price evaluation methodology and a preference for fixed price contracts that could have a significant impact on the way the Department of Defense (DoD) procures goods and services in the coming years. The FY17 NDAA also featured changes to the task order protest jurisdiction, which we outlined in this blog post.
Continue Reading LPTA Out, Fixed Price Contracts In

Recently, I discussed contracting financial burdens in an article for National Defense Magazine outlining the potential for the new Trump administration to alleviate some regulations to lure new businesses into the government contract industry. As I point out in the article, “contracting regulations in recent years have added hundreds of millions of dollars in costs…

From the Bass, Berry & Sims Blog Network
From the Bass, Berry & Sims Blog Network

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