Procurement Playbook

Contractors often sign modifications and change orders without being fully aware of the rights they may be waiving under the modifications’ terms. While the federal government’s standard modification form (Standard Form 30) does not contain waiver language, government agencies generally add such language to ensure that the modification forecloses future claims by the contractor for work associated with the modification. Read More…

In what appears to be the first litigation concerning “intergovernmental support agreements” (IGSA), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Red River Waste Solutions, Inc., B-414367 (March 21, 2017) declared that it has jurisdiction to review the award of IGSAs (in this particular case an IGSA for garbage collection services). Read More…

Unlike bid protests filed at the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), there is no automatic Competition in Contacting Act (“CICA”) stay that applies to protests filed at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”). Instead, a protester wishing for the contract award to be halted during the pendency of a COFC protest has two avenues of relief: (1) the government agrees to voluntarily stay contract performance/award during the pendency of the protest, Read More…

Last month, we wrote about the House passing a resolution (H.J. Res. 37) pursuant to the Congressional Review Act to repeal the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule (commonly known as the contractor “Blacklisting” rule). At the time we predicted the resolution would also pass the Senate and be signed by President Trump. Read More…

It is not uncommon for a disappointed offeror in a fixed-price procurement to be astonished at how low the awardee’s proposal price ends up being. This astonishment can lead to the desire to file a bid protest based on the argument that the awardee’s price is unreasonably low. Read More…

Communication is key to any protest or lawsuit.  While it is common for parties in a legal dispute to hold their cards close to the vest, significant problems arise when strategic discretion becomes closer to manipulation of facts.  In Level 3 Communications, LLC v. United States, Read More…

In these early days of Donald Trump’s administration, domestic sourcing requirements are receiving heightened focus.  President Trump’s Jan. 24, 2017, “Presidential Memorandum Regarding Construction of American Pipelines” asks the Secretary of Commerce to “develop a plan under which all new pipelines . Read More…

Oles Morrison attorney, Adam K. Lasky,  has been invited to present at the Alliance Northwest 2017 Conference on Thursday, March 19 at the Washington State Fairgrounds Showplex. His presentation, “A Contractor’s Guide to Mitigating Negative Past Performance Reviews” will provide contractors with a roadmap for dealing with negative past performance reviews, Read More…

Back in October 2016, we wrote about the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule (commonly known as the contractor “Blacklisting” rule) and how its implementation had been temporarily halted by a federal court in Texas.  The Blacklisting rule would have allowed agencies to essentially debar contractors on a contract-by-contract basis if a contractor had a labor law violation on its record.   Read More…

President Trump’s Executive Orders have been front page news for the past week, many of which have been quite controversial. Yesterday the President issued another Executive Order that, although unlikely to garner major media buzz, may be the most impactful yet for government contractors. Read More…