By Oles Morrison on February 11, 2020 | Posted in News
On February 13th, James Nagle and Howard Roth will present a full day educational seminar on “Contract Compliance” at Columbia Basin NCMA’s National Education Seminar.
By Howard W. Roth on | Posted in Bid Protests
What do you do when the Agency has made a mistake in the solicitation for a contract requirement or not selected your company for award of the contract? Most contractors think of filing a protest to Government Accountability Office (GAO) or the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) and therefore do not avail themselves of the secret weapon in bid protests—an agency protest.
Smart contractors utilize agency protests which are, cheaper, quicker, not revealed to other offerors, and have little downside on pre-award issues. While there are risks, an agency protest provides another protest weapon to gain an edge for a contractor in the fight for contracts.
By Oles Morrison on January 6, 2020 | Posted in Legislative and Regulatory Developments
After more than five years in the making, DoD, GSA, and NASA recently issued a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require contractors and subcontractors to report to the Government-Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP) certain counterfeit or suspect counterfeit parts and “common items” with major or critical […]
By Oles Morrison on November 26, 2019 | Posted in Bid Protests
On Halloween Day of 2019, President Trump signed Executive Order 13897, titled “Improving Federal Contractor Operations by Revoking Executive Order 13495.” (84 Fed. Reg. 59709 (Oct. 31, 2019)). This Order revoked, effective immediately, Executive Order 13495 on “Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts,” which was issued by President Obama. […]
GAO Says Contractors Must “Diligently Pursue” Agency Debriefing or Potentially Lose Right to Protest
By Emily Yoshiwara on November 8, 2019 | Posted in Bid Protests
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a decision holding that a bidder’s failure to “diligently pursue” its request for a debriefing rendered its protest untimely. GAO’s bid protest regulations are strict about the time in which a contractor can file a protest. If the protest is alleging improprieties in […]
By Emily Yoshiwara on October 28, 2019 | Posted in
On October 1, 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a final rule (DFARS 215.101-2-70) that implemented limitations on its ability to use the Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) method of procurement. In a LPTA procurement, a contact is awarded to the offeror with the lowest price who submitted a […]
By Oles Morrison on October 23, 2019 | Posted in Claims and Disputes
In Meridian Engineering Co. v. U.S., 2019 WL 4594233, Case No. 11-492C (September 23, 2019), the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”) decided a contractor was entitled to damages for cumulative delays on a construction project with the Army Corps of Engineers (“Government” or “Army”) to include costs due to […]
By Ashley J. Sherwood on September 25, 2019 | Posted in Claims and Disputes
Despite acknowledging that an “objective inquiry” and not “subject beliefs” is appropriate to determine the validity of a default termination, the Court of Federal Claims ruled that the government’s default termination was invalid based in part on the Contracting Officer Representative’s (COR) “hostility” towards the contractor and “history of dishonesty” […]
By Oles Morrison on September 9, 2019 | Posted in News
To help you navigate the rough seas of doing business with the federal government in the Trump administration, Washington PTAC, Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition, AGC of Washington, and the Government Contracts team at Oles Morrison have assembled a group of nationally recognized government contracts professionals for a seminar covering topics relevant to government contractors across […]
By Oles Morrison on July 24, 2019 | Posted in Buy American Act
As anticipated, the Trump Administration has continued to build on its emphasis for domestic preference requirements on projects that are subject to the Buy American Act – both for projects that are directly funded by the federal government, or pursuant to the Administration’s January 31, 2019 Executive Order, “Strengthening Buy American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects,” potentially also to projects that are indirectly funded by the government. The Administration’s latest efforts in this area have come in the form of a July 15, 2019 Executive Order, “Maximizing Use of American-Made, Goods, Products, and Materials.” While this most recent Executive Order on this subject contains a number of proposed changes, which will need to be implemented through regulations, it proposes two changes that may have significant ramifications for the construction industry. This alert summarizes the key considerations for construction contractors.