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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 ...

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 ...

Recently, Cherissa Tamayori, Director of Acquisition and Senior Contracting Official for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), joined U.S. military and defense industry experts from around the globe at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in April 2023 to discuss innovation and adoption in procurement strategies in the Department of Defense (DoD), particularly by leveraging commercial partners.

Tamayori noted a shift across the DoD shift to adopt non-traditional forms of contracting, including the use of other transaction authorities, or OTAs, and the use of the ...

We recently wrote about the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs' (“OFCCP”) upcoming requirement for contractors to certify their affirmative action program ("AAP") compliance starting March 31, 2022. In forging ahead with its oversight function, on March 15, 2022, the OFCCP issued Directive 2022-01, Pay Equity Audits (the “Directive”), which requires contractors to produce internal pay equity analyses as part of their audit responses. This is the first OFCCP directive under the Biden Administration and it adds yet another significant element to ...

Federal contractors and subcontractors will soon be required to certify, on an annual basis, to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) that they have developed and maintained a written affirmative action program (“AAP”). On February 1, 2022, registration opened for the OFCCP AAP Verification Interface (“AAP-VI” or “Contractor Portal”) and, on March 31, the certification features will be turned on. When the certification features become available, existing covered contractors will then have until June 30, 2022 to certify that they have ...

A Government Accountability Office ("GAO") bid protest decision highlights an important aspect of "best value" in government contracting: a proper tradeoff decision must provide a rational explanation as to why a superior technical proposal warrants paying a higher price.

The protest of Alpha Omega Integration, LLC, B-419812; B-419812.2, August 10, 2021, 2021 CPD ¶ 302 involves a challenge to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's ("Agency") award under a solicitation for information technology services. The solicitation used a best-value source selection process with a ...

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 ...