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The Department of Justice ("DOJ") recently announced a $1.75 million false claims settlement with a contractor that "improperly obtained government contracts that were set-aside for small businesses." The DOJ settlement highlights the criticality of accurate small business representations and certifications in government contracting, and in particular, those that may arise during or after an M&A transaction involving a small business.
Briefly, the False Claims Act ("FCA") is the primary enforcement tool in the government's arsenal to combat fraud in government ...
Last week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO") published its much anticipated Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2023. GAO's annual report is required under the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 ("CICA") and provides the government contracting community with good insight into GAO's bid protest function. [1] Despite being just four pages, GAO's report is highly informative because it showcases key bid protest statistics and GAO's most prevalent grounds on which it sustained bid protests during FY23.
To that end, government contractors that ...
In April 2023, the FCC established the Space Bureau, reorganizing the functions of the Satellite Division in the FCC’s former International Bureau (IB) into a new, stand-alone bureau, with an eye towards promoting a competitive and innovative global satellite and space-based communications marketplace.
Yesterday, in furtherance of this objective, the Space Bureau launched its Transparency Initiative, with the goal of providing interested parties with user-friendly information and guidance regarding the Commission’s space station and earth station ...
Joshua Duvall was quoted by Law360 in its article "SBA Small Biz Program Changes Likely To Limit Participation." In July, U.S. District Judge Clifton L. Corker (E.D. Tennessee) held in Ultima Servs. Corp. v. U.S. Dep't of Agric. that the "rebuttable presumption" of social disadvantage under SBA's 8(a) program regulations violated a plaintiff's Fifth Amendment right to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. As a result, the court enjoined SBA from using the rebuttable presumption in administering the 8(a) program.
In discussing the court's decision and SBA's recent ...
We recently wrote about a federal court decision in Ultima Servs. Corp. v. U.S. Dep't of Agric., which held that the "rebuttable presumption" of social disadvantage under Small Business Administration's ("SBA") 8(a) Program ("8(a) Program") was unconstitutional. Following the court's decision, SBA paused all applications for its 8(a) Program and provided a short update on certify.SBA.gov.
Today, the SBA, in conjunction with the National 8(a) Association, held a webinar to provide another update on how SBA plans on moving forward in light of the court's decision in Ultima. This ...
On August 22 & 23, 2023, Joshua Duvall will be participating in the 2023 National HUBZone Conference in Leesburg, VA as both a presenter and panel moderator. On August 22, Josh will present Bid Protests 101, and on August 23, Josh will moderate a panel called Navigating Regulatory and Policy Updates in Government Cyber Security Protocols: Ensuring Compliance and Strengthening Resilience.
The 2023 National HUBZone Conference is a 2-day event packed with matchmaking, networking, and workshops. This annual conference emphasizes the importance of community collaboration to ...
On July 19, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee held in Ultima Servs. Corp. v. U.S. Dep't of Agric. that the "rebuttable presumption" of social disadvantage under Small Business Administration's ("SBA") 8(a) Business Development Program ("8(a) BD Program") violated a plaintiff's Fifth Amendment right to equal protection under the law. The Court enjoined the SBA from using the rebuttable presumption in administering SBA’s 8(a) BD Program. As a result, discussed further below, both future and current 8(a) BD Program participants will need to ...
The government's fiscal year ("FY") is coming to an end on September 30, which means the need for agencies to spend "use it or lose it" contracting dollars will steadily increase over the next couple of months. And, while the contracting space typically sees a concomitant uptick in bid protests in September and October due to the influx of late Q4 contract awards, this year, we may also see an uptick in something else due to a recent Small Business Administration ("SBA") regulatory update: sole source 8(a) awards.
As many contractors may recall, in 2020, the Department of Defense ("DOD ...
On June 9, 2023, the Department of Defense (“DoD”) issued a proposed rule to address domestic preferences – the Buy American Act – in DoD procurements. The proposed rule follows updates to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) that implemented Executive Order (“EO”) 14005, Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America's Workers, by addressing DoD-unique requirements.
The FAR final rule, Amendments to the FAR Buy American Act Requirements (effective October 25, 2022), which we previously covered on this blog, implemented a portion of EO ...
Late last month, the Biden administration launched the 8(a) MAS Pool Initiative. This initiative is a joint effort between the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to help small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs) participating in the 8(a) Business Development Program gain access to more federal contracts in GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program.
The MAS Program is part of the GAO’s Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) and seeks to issue long-term, government-wide contracts that provide federal, state, and local ...