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 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
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council recently published a final rule to implement a policy that provides for accelerated payments to small business prime contractors and small business subcontractors. This noteworthy final rule — which has an effective date of March 16, 2023 — is discussed below.
The Department of Defense (DoD), the General
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
On November 8, 2022, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued a memorandum that provides details on a pilot program that allows government contractors owned 100% by an S-corporation employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) to receive a noncompetitive award for certain follow-on contracts. According to the memorandum, the program is limited to only nine “entities,” and
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an overview of the bid protest procedures in the State of Alabama and noted that the existing laws and regulations were repealed and replaced effective October 1, 2022.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.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued its annual bid protest report. As discussed below, this year’s report is noteworthy for multiple reasons, including that it shows that protesters received some form of relief from the procuring agency in more than half of the protests filed with the GAO in fiscal year (FY) 2022.
Aron C. Beezley, co-leader of the firm’s Government Contracts Practice Group and a partner in the Washington, D.C. office, has been named a 2022 Law360 MVP of the Year winner in the Government Contracts category.
The 12th annual Law360 MVP Awards recognize attorneys across the country who have distinguished themselves from their peers by making
While 2020 is (fortunately) in the rearview mirror, issues involving the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) are (unfortunately) not going away any time soon. This article provides a brief update on two of the most currently active areas — fraud enforcement actions and PPP appeals — in
Virginia has joined the growing number of states that prohibit “pay-if-paid” clauses. The new law, known as Virginia Senate Bill 550, amends Virginia’s Prompt Payment Act (Va. Code § 2.2-4354) and its relatively new (July 1, 2020) wage theft statute (Va. Code § 11-4.6) and applies to public construction contracts and private construction contracts that