Buy American? Agencies Must Carefully Document Market Research for Domestic Preference Compliance, says GAO

A recent GAO case on protest costs looked at whether costs were reimbursable centered around whether a Buy American Act waiver was properly applied in the procurement process. As you likely know, the Buy American Act is something many contractors (especially supply and construction contractors) must deal with in their contracting process, and getting a waiver or an exception often may be critical to a proposal. This case arose from a protest seeking costs, but it is still a great opportunity for contractors to better understand the limits of a waiver or exception of the Buy American Act and GAO’s expectations surrounding such an action.

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Free Virtual Workshop: Legislative Changes that May Affect Your Small GovCon Business, February 28, 3:00-5:00PM CST

The government contracting legal landscape has gone through many important changes in 2022 and the first part of 2023, including new small business rules, SDVOSB certification requirements, recent domestic preference changes under the Buy American Act, key provisions of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act and other laws passed in 2022, and much more.  In this session, we will provide a comprehensive update on the most important government contracting legal changes in 2022, and the projected changes in the first months of 2023. This webinar is hosted by The Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship. Hope to see you there! Register here.

UTSA Apex Accelerator Webinar: Government Contracts Legal Update 2023, February 21, 2023, 10:00-11:30am CST

The government contracting legal landscape has gone through many important changes in 2022 and the first part of 2023, including new small business rules, SDVOSB certification requirements, recent domestic preference changes under the Buy American Act, and much more.  In this session we will provide a comprehensive update on the most important government contracting legal changes. This is a “no-cost” Training.  Register here.

Webinar Event: Buy American Act & Trade Agreements, January 19, 2023, 1-2:00 PM CST

The Texas South-West Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network is hosting this upcoming, informative webinar on the Buy American Act, presented by me and John Holtz. The Buy American Act permits agencies to buy foreign end products only under certain exceptions, such as when domestic items are not available at a reasonable cost. Further, U.S. trade agreements waive the Buy American restrictions for certain products.

Please join us to learn more about these rules to include the recent updates. You can register here.

Govology Webinar Event: 2022 Government Contracts Year-End Review, December 8, 2022, 1:00 pm EST

In this webinar, Govology Legal Analyst Steven Koprince and I will cover the most important legal developments for federal contractors in 2022, including new small business rules, recent domestic preference changes under the Buy American Act, key provisions of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, and much more. I hope you will join us. Registration Link is here.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 10-14, 2022

Happy Friday, Readers. I don’t know about you, but it feels like fall brings with it a flurry of activity! There are so many community events going on this weekend, it’s hard to decide what to attend. We’re certainly very fortunate to have so many options. I hope you can get out and enjoy the fall activities in your neck of the woods and get in a bit of relaxation, as well. Here are some articles that we found particularly informative concerning federal government contracting this week, including GSA schedule pricing, CIO-SP4, and Polaris updates. Enjoy your weekend!

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Buy American Act Thresholds Are Going Up

As we’ve written about, it seems like there have been more changes to the Buy American Act and domestic preferences in the last few years than in decades before that. Recently, the FAR Council issued a final rule that spells out how the domestic content thresholds will increase over the next few years. This rule is effective October 25, 2022, so contractors need to be preparing for it now.

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