Category Archives: Statutes and Regulations

GAO to Agency: Offerors are More than Just a CPARS-Generated Rating Percentage

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GAO recently sustained protest to an agency’s FAR Part 13 procurement that relied exclusively on CPARS-generated assessment chart rating percentages to evaluate vendors’ past performance. The agency’s goal was to “maximize competition” by considering all past work, rather than just relevant work.

While there is no FAR Part 13 regulatory prohibition on doing so, GAO found the CPARS charts incomplete and misleading and the evaluation inconsistent with the terms of the solicitation.

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GAO Defers to SBA’s Interpretation of Runway Extension Act

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The Runway Extension Act has been a hot topic for federal government contractors. And as of this writing, the issue of the Act’s effectiveness hasn’t been conclusively decided—though SBA says the Act isn’t yet effective, others (including us, in various posts on this blog) have disagreed with this analysis.

A recent GAO decision decided a protest based on the Runway Extension Act.

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Congress Expected to Reject Section 809 Panel Recommendation to Eliminate Small Business Set-Asides

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As we wrote about, the Section 809 Panel had recommended that Congress eliminate most small business set-asides for DoD acquisitions. The Panel suggested replacing small business set-asides with a five percent small business price preference.

It looks like Congress heard our concerns—and those voiced throughout industry—and will reject this suggestion.

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Proposed FAR Update to Allow Small Business Set-Asides for Contracts Outside USA

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Traditionally, small business set-asides are not utilized in Federal contracts performed outside the United States. The SBA allows for contracts performed outside the United States to use set-asides or sole-source awards, but the FAR does not reflect this. Recently, the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and NASA have proposed an update the FAR that would reflect the allowance of small business set-asides and sole-source awards in contracts performed outside of the United States. 

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One Protest Spoils the Bunch

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GAO recently dismissed several bid protests to an $82 billion procurement because of the actions of a company that had already lost its protest.

In AECOM Management Services, four different companies protested the U.S. Army’s logistics civil augmentation program procurement for various “Setting the Theater” services for the Army’s Northern Command, Southern Command, African Command, European Command, Central Command, Pacific Command, and Afghanistan.

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Contractors Beware: Government Bans Certain Telecommunications Equipment Effective August 13, 2019

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Cybersecurity is a key concern of the federal government, which means that it should be a key concern for federal contractors, too.

To address a perceived cybersecurity risk, the 2019 NDAA prohibited the government from buying telecommunications devices produced by certain companies—namely, Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation, or any of their subsidiaries. In a proposed rule announced this week, this ban will be effective beginning August 13, 2019.

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U.S. Government to Ditch the DUNS

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Earlier this month, the GSA announced a new Unique Entity Identifier Standard for Federal awards management. The new standard will go into effect December 2020. It will replace the current DUNS number system as the official identifier for all businesses contracting with the U.S. Federal Government.

This should make registering to do business with the federal government a little easier, but the proof will be in the roll-out.

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