Echoing the Obama Administration’s Better Buying Initiative, the Biden Administration announced the Better Contracting Initiative (“BCI”), a four-pronged initiative designed to ensure the Federal Government gets better, and more consistent, terms and prices when purchasing commercial goods and services, while enhancing support for small and disadvantaged businesses. The Initiative’s four prongs include:
1. Leveraging…
The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals has issued its annual report for FY 2023, shedding light on how often contractor appeals reach a successful result, and what agencies are most frequently involved in contract litigation.…
This is the twenty-ninth in a series of Covington blogs on implementation of Executive Order 14028, “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity,” issued by President Biden on May 12, 2021 (the “Cyber EO”). The first blog summarized the Cyber EO’s key provisions and timelines, and the subsequent blogs described the actions taken by various government agencies to…
On Thursday, GAO released its Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2023, which provides bid protest statistics and other interesting information regarding GAO’s protest system.…
On October 5, 2023, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council) issued an interim Federal Acquisition Regulation rule (FAR rule) that implements the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act (FASCSA). This FAR rule implements the requirements of the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act of 2018 and the Federal Acquisition Security Council (FASC) final rule…
Although Congress averted a Government shutdown on October 1 by passing a temporary spending bill, we may be headed toward a shutdown next month. As many Federal Government contractors have experienced during prior Government shutdowns, some portions of the Government — primarily those not funded through annual appropriations bills or that provide “essential services” —…
On October 3, 2023, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council released two new proposed cybersecurity rules. The first of the two, titled “Cyber Threat and Incident Reporting and Information Sharing,” adds new requirements to the cybersecurity incident reporting obligations of federal contractors. The second rule, which we will cover in a separate blog post, is…
Following our recent overview of topics to watch in the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) for Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2024, available here, we continue our coverage with a “deep dive” into NDAA provisions related to cybersecurity and software security in each of the Senate and House bills. For the past three years, the NDAA…
The Supreme Court’s decision in United States ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc., 143 S. Ct. 1720 (2023), has increased attention on arguments that the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions may be unconstitutional. Although the majority’s opinion in the case did not address the issue, the dissent by Justice Thomas—joined in this…
Last Friday, September 29, the FAR Council published a proposed rule that would update the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to implement the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 2020 changes to rules on when small businesses must recertify their status in connection with orders under multiple-award contracts.
The SBA size and socioeconomic recertification rules are convoluted —…
