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On Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Harmonia Holdings Group, LLC v. United States, No. 20-1538, a case that has garnered national attention for its potential to alter the way the United States Court of Federal Claims applies the so-called “waiver rule” first articulated in Blue & Gold Fleet, L.P. v. United States, 492 F.3d 1038 (Fed. Cir. 2007). Brad English and Emily Chancey represented Harmonia in this case and were excited for the favorable ruling their client received.
The case involved a $325 million IT services ...
On November 30, 2021, Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky issued a preliminary injunction in Commonwealth of Kentucky et al. v. Biden et al. (Case No. 21-cv-00055) that prohibits the federal government “from enforcing the vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors in all covered contracts in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.” This Client Alert provides a high-level overview of the decision and highlights similar challenges now pending in various U.S. District Courts throughout the country.
In ...
Yesterday, the Department of Defense ("DoD") announced Version 2.0 of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification ("CMMC") Program. Notably, CMMC 2.0 maintains the original CMMC 1.X Program's goal of safeguarding sensitive information, while:
- Simplifying the CMMC standard and providing additional clarity on cybersecurity regulatory, policy, and contracting requirements;
- Focusing the most advanced cybersecurity standards and third-party assessment requirements on companies supporting the highest priority programs; and
- Increasing Department oversight of ...
This Client Alert outlines the critical points for government contractors to know about the Biden Administration’s executive order, regulations, and guidance addressing COVID-19 prevention measures in the workplace.
On September 9, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors (“EO”), to promote the economy and efficiency in federal procurement by ensuring that certain federal prime contractors and subcontractors provide adequate COVID-19 safeguards to their workers performing on or in ...
In August, the Government Accountability Office ("GAO") provided a boost for small business joint ventures ("JV") that are pursuing defense contracts in holding that the plain language of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA") prohibits the Department of Defense ("DoD") "from issuing solicitations that require a joint venture, rather than the members of the joint venture, hold the required facility clearance."
The decision is welcome news for small business JVs where each member holds the required facility security clearance ("FCL"), as the decision may result ...
On Friday, September 24, 2021, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force ("Task Force") published its Guidance for Federal Contractors and Subcontractors ("Guidance"). This Guidance follows President Biden's Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors ("EO") and provides definitions, three sections of contractor guidance, and a host of Questions and Answers ("Q&A") to assist contractors in implementing the President's vaccine mandate and workplace safety measures.
Briefly, the Guidance is broad and the vaccine mandate ...
Last week, the Federal Acquisition Regulation ("FAR") Council published a final rule amending the FAR to implement a portion of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 ("2017 NDAA"), which requires examples of failure to make good faith efforts to comply with a small business subcontracting plan.
The final rule also provides that "failure to make a good faith effort to comply with the plan may result in the assessment of liquidated damages per FAR 52.219-16, Liquidated Damages—Subcontracting Plan," and requires that "all indirect costs, with certain ...
A recent Government Accountability Office ("GAO") bid protest decision provides a reminder of when an agency may conduct a price realism analysis in fixed-price contracts. So, the next time you want to challenge a competitor's low price, remember that agencies are neither required nor permitted to conduct a price realism analysis in a fixed-price procurement unless the solicitation calls for it either expressly or impliedly.
The protest of Inbound, LLC, B-419853.5, July 30, 2021, 2021 CPD ¶ ___ involved the protester's challenge to the establishment of multiple blanket purchase ...