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

$15 Per Hour Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors Takes EffectThe 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

Miller Act Suit Stayed until CDA Remedies ExhaustedA 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

Inside DOJ’s New Cyber-Fraud InitiativeThe Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced the launch of the Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative, which will utilize the False Claims Act (FCA) to pursue cybersecurity-related fraud by government contractors and grant recipients. Key features of and takeaways from this new initiative are discussed below.

Key Features 

  • The initiative aims to hold accountable entities or individuals

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

Uncle Sam Wants You! (To Get Vaccinated, If You’re a Federal Contractor): Updated COVID-19 Workplace Safety Guidelines Are HereAs promised, on September 24, 2021, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued Guidance for Federal Contractors and Subcontractors about the implementation of President Biden’s Executive Order 14042, which imposed a vaccine mandate on many federal contractors. Bottom line up front, as the military likes to say, Uncle Sam wants its federal contractors to

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.

New Vaccine Requirements for Federal ContractorsThe Biden administration recently announced that “every federal government employee and onsite contractor will be asked to attest to their vaccination status,” and that anyone who “does not attest to being fully vaccinated will be required to wear a mask on the job no matter their geographic location, physically distance from all other employees and

FAR Limitation on Subcontracting Rules Are Finally Here!In 2016, the Small Business Administration (SBA) updated its regulations pertaining to limitations on subcontracting. Five years later, on August 11, 2021, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council finally followed suit by publishing two final rules that largely mirror the SBA’s rules. This is a welcome development for federal contractors, as the discrepancy between the