The 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
PPP Deferment Extended for Borrowers Who Appeal Forgiveness Decisions
The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently issued an interim final rule that extends the deferment period for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) borrowers who appeal final SBA loan review decisions.
Prior to the issuance of this interim final rule, the rule for appeals of final SBA loan review decisions on PPP loans provided that appeals by
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
Read Your Contract: It May Cost You Your Arbitration Award
Imagine receiving an arbitration award in favor of your client. You move to confirm the award, and the award is vacated because the parties failed to mediate prior to arbitration. That is exactly what happened in Burke v. Roberson.
In December 2020, the First Court of Appeals in Houston affirmed the vacatur of an
CICA Violated Where Sole-Source Award Duration Was Too Long
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC), in Sierra Nevada Corporation v. United States, recently held that a contracting agency’s justification of a sole-source contract award ran afoul of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) because the duration of the sole-source contract was longer than reasonably necessary. The COFC’s decision in this case is
AGC Announcement Raises Doubts on PPP Questionnaire: What Contractors Need to Know about Your PPP Forms
The Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Necessity Questionnaire may soon be a thing of the past. Last fall the SBA began requiring lenders to provide certain questionnaires to PPP borrowers that received loans of $2 million or more. The questionnaire was meant to help assess the veracity of a borrower’s certification that
Enforcing Electronic Contracts in Texas When the Other Party Denies Signing
As an ever-increasing amount of contract negotiation and execution is done online, new legal issues have arisen from such transactions. Consider the following scenario:
You are a general/prime contractor. You have a subcontractor’s electronic signature on an arbitration agreement. When a dispute arises with the subcontractor, you raise the arbitration agreement and attempt to submit
DoD to Expand Enhanced Debriefings Rights
The Department of Defense (DoD) recently proposed to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to codify and expand on the rules set forth in DoD’s March 2018 Class Deviation on Enhanced Postaward Debriefing Rights. The proposed rule addresses separately post-award debriefing rights for contract awards and task/delivery order awards.
Contract Awards
Regarding contract
New Exec. Order Increases Federal Contractor Min. Wage to $15 Per Hr.
President Biden recently signed an executive order (EO) that will increase the minimum wage rate to be paid to workers performing work on or in connection with a federal contract from $10.95 per hour to $15.00 per hour beginning January 30, 2022.
The EO states that federal executive departments and agencies shall, to the extent
Continuing Increase in U.S. Regulation of Foreign Direct Investment
Impacts of Encryption Regulation and Strategic Competition Act on CFIUS
The last two years have seen the passage and expedited implementation of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) – arguably the largest change in U.S. regulation of foreign investment since the 1975 creation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS).