In 2024 the White House continues to place an emphasis on the U.S. Government’s longstanding domestic purchase preferences. The latest update implementing the domestic purchase preference is the Department of Defense’s Final Rule that was published on February 15, 2024, which amends the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS). This revision to the DFARS supplements
The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that it obtained more than $2.68 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and judgments in the fiscal year ending September 23, 2023. Notably, DOJ reports that “procurement fraud” recoveries again comprised one of the largest categories of recoveries for DOJ this past year.
Among the more notable
On January 30, 2024, the Biden administration proposed a rule (the Salary Rule) that would amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to “prohibit contractors and subcontractors from seeking and considering information about a job applicant’s compensation history when making employment decisions for certain positions.” The new rule would also require contractors and subcontractors to disclose
In the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) appeal of McCarthy HITT – Next NGA West JV, ASBCA No. 63571, 2023 WL 9179193 (Dec. 20, 2023), a contractor brought suit for a collection of COVID-19-related claims on behalf of three of its subcontractors. The government moved to dismiss, arguing the subcontractors’ appeal failed
The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA), in the case of StructSure Projects, Inc., recently granted COVID-19-related costs to a contractor under a fixed-price contract. The key facts, holdings, and takeaways from this noteworthy case are discussed below.
The government awarded the contractor a fixed-price task order for design and alteration
On June 2, 2023, the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council issued an interim rule to implement a new statutory requirement that, in short, bans the TikTok app from devices used in the performance of federal government contracts (TikTok Rule). The TikTok Rule introduces a new FAR clause, FAR 52.204-27
Section 864 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 authorized the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) to decide all appeals from Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) status protest determinations, which are currently decided by SBA’s associate administrator of Government Contracting and Business Development. The SBA recently
On January 30, 2023, the Biden administration stated that it intends to extend the previously declared COVID-19 national emergency and the separately declared public health emergency until May 11, 2023, and then end both emergency declarations. This statement comes in response to Congressional attempts to declare an earlier end date to the emergencies with the
The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council recently issued an interim rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement Executive Order 14026 “Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors” and a final rule issued by the Department of Labor. The Executive Order “seeks to raise the hourly minimum wage paid by contractors to workers performing
A federal district court in Washington recently rejected a subcontractor’s motion for reconsideration of a previously granted motion to stay in a Miller Act lawsuit (the Miller Act governs prime contractor bond requirements on federal projects and sets forth remedies against the bond for subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers on such projects). In United States of