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Sarah Osborne’s practice focuses on complex civil litigation. Within the Construction and Government Contracts Practice Group, Sarah has experience defending construction disputes and represents government contractors in prosecuting and defending bid protests before the Government Accountability Office and the United States Court of Federal Claims. View articles by Sarah.

On December 23, 2022, President Joseph R. Biden signed into law the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as Public Law No. 117-7776, which included Section 822: “Modification of Contracts to Provide Extraordinary Relief Due to Inflation Impacts.” This section temporarily gives new discretionary authority to the secretary of defense to modify firm fixed-price

We previously published an overview of the bid protest procedures in the State of Alabama and noted that the existing laws and regulations were repealed and replaced effective October 1, 2022. This article provides a brief update on these revised statutory and regulatory processes and procedures that bidders should be aware of.

Applicability of the

In response to industry questions about economic price adjustments for inflation, the Department of Defense (DoD) recently issued Guidance on Inflation and Economic Price Adjustments. Key takeaways from DoD’s guidance — which aims to help contracting officers (COs) “understand whether it is appropriate to recognize cost increases due to inflation under existing contracts as

WOSB/EDWOSB Amendments to the FAR Are HereThe Department of Defense (DoD), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently proposed a series of noteworthy amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that impact Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) concerns and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) concerns. The key proposed amendments to the FAR — which

Afghanistan Withdrawal: The Government Contractor’s Guide to Terminations for ConvenienceWith the United States’ recent withdrawal from Afghanistan, it is only a matter of time before the government begins terminating certain federal contracts for the convenience of the government. Accordingly, government contractors need to know their rights and obligations so that they can be best positioned if one or more of their contracts are terminated.

Govt’s Failure to Grant REA Can Constitute Breach of ContractThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in BGT Holdings LLC v. United States, recently held that the government does not have the discretion to deny a contractor’s request for equitable adjustment (REA) under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.245-1 (Government Property) where the conditions specified in that clause are present and the

UPDATE: Huawei Ban and Section 889 Representation RequirementsTo “combat the national security and intellectual property threats that face the United States,” section 889(a)(1)(B) of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019 (Pub. L. 115-232) prohibits executive agencies from “entering into, or extending or renewing, a contract with an entity that uses any equipment, system, or service that uses

UPDATE: Section 3610 and PPP Guidance for Government ContractorsWe previously reported on a series of issues arising from the CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that uniquely impact government contractors. We have cautioned that government contractors should be mindful of the positions that the Department of Defense (DoD) and other agencies stake out in the treatment of PPP loans or Section 3610

DoD Formally Increases 8(a) Sole-Source Threshold to $100 MillionThe Department of Defense (DoD) recently issued a formal amendment to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to increase the threshold for requiring contracting agencies to issue sole-source justifications of federal contract awards to companies participating in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program.  The amendment increases the threshold from $22 million to $100 million.