Happy Thanksgiving! Here at SmallGovCon, we strive to provide concise, up-to-date, and actionable legal updates and analysis to people in the federal government contracting community and we want to take this opportunity to thank our blog readers. We hope that you will enjoy a few days off spending time with family and friends. We will provide our regular Week in Review next week. Enjoy that pumpkin pie!
In an effort to comply with Executive Orders issued by the President, and to lower greenhouse gas effects, the Department of Defense, NASA, and GSA have recently issued a proposed rule that would change the FAR to create further requirements for contractors to report and disclose greenhouse gas emissions, as well as create emission targets. This proposed rule will add various requirements to the FAR that create additional reporting for contractors based on their size. Contractors should review these potential changes carefully, provide comments, and begin preparing for compliance with the new requirements. Below is our summary of the key changes.
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Happy Friday, Readers! We had our first snow this week which was a reminder that winter is blowing in. The birds are flocking to the bird feeders, the geese are flying overhead and there seems to be a red-tailed hawk on every farm fence hunting for food. I say it’s time to snuggle in where it’s warm and enjoy some sports on the television, this weekend.
There was a lot of activity in federal government contracting this week. Here are some articles that we think might be of interest. Enjoy the weekend!
Continue reading…It probably doesn’t need to be said that all of us have been chafing under inflation lately, and federal contractors are certainly no exception. Rises in costs for goods and labor have exerted serious pressure on businesses and households worldwide. However, not all inflation is bad. SBA recently released a final rule taking into account the inflation of the past few years when it comes to the various receipts-based size-standards and economic disadvantage limits, as well as finally adjusting the 8(a) Business Development Program sole source limits. These changes are crucially important for those businesses that have just barely exceeded the applicable size standards, or that were getting close to the maximum. In this post, we’re going to explore this rule.
Continue reading…Two of the Small Business Administration’s programs require the applicant to demonstrate that they are economically disadvantaged: the 8(a) Business Development Program (8(a) Program) and the Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business Program (EDWOSB). The 8(a) Program requires applicants to be owned and controlled by both socially and economically disadvantaged individuals per 13 C.F.R. § 124.101. Applicants of the EDWOSB program must be owned and controlled by one or more economically disadvantaged women per 13 C.F.R. § 127.200(a)(2). But what exactly does it mean to be “economically disadvantaged,” and do both programs have the same requirements? Below I discuss the economically disadvantaged requirement contained in both programs. Read on to find out whether they are the same, and more.
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On this Veteran’s Day, our firm salutes veterans. Veterans are extraordinarily modest. They don’t ask for, or expect, a “thank you.” But that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve one. If you are a veteran, thank you very much for your service. If you are not a veteran, take a moment today to thank the veterans in your life. We appreciate you and we truly thank you for your service today and every day.
We’ve included some articles on federal government contracting that we found informative, this week. Enjoy the weekend and happy Veteran’s Day!
Continue reading…GAO’s annual bid protest report is a fall tradition for federal contracting attorneys. It’s perhaps not quite as tasty as stuffing in my book, but always interesting. In it, GAO summarizes its slate of bid protests for the previous fiscal year, and we can glean insights from how the protest numbers have changed from prior years.
Here are some key points from this year: (1) the key effectiveness metric, showing numbers of sustains and corrective actions at GAO, was up again to 51% for the 2022 fiscal year and (2) total bid protest numbers are down slightly, continuing a trend from the last few years.
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