As our SmallGovCon readers might know, the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program is often thought of as the golden goose of federal government contracting, at least for small businesses. And it’s true, in some respects. While it is the most difficult of the SBA’s socioeconomic programs to gain admittance to, if admitted, you stand to reap large benefits such as access to competitive and sole-source contracts. And another SBA rule limits the ability to move contracts away from 8(a) Program set-asides. In that scenario, a contract that had been restricted to 8(a) Program Participants is recompeted as a set-aside for small businesses generally or a different socioeconomic category (SDVOSB, WOSB, HUBZone). Less frequently, it might not set aside for small businesses at all. If that happens, what should you do? Well, you should be familiar with what is commonly referred to as the “once 8(a), always 8(a)” rule as well as when to protest a violation of that rule.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Why File
Why File: A COFC Protest
As a federal contractor, there are many factors to consider in filing a potential bid protest. In this post, we look at the potential considerations, both pros and cons, for filing a bid protest at the Court of Federal Claims (COFC). Below are some of the main items to think about in considering a bid protest at the COFC, as opposed to a bid protest at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) or an agency level protest. The decision of whether, and where, to file a bid protest is one that should only be taken with care and, preferably, with the advice of counsel.
Continue readingWhy File: A GAO Bid Protest Intervention
When contractors think of GAO Bid Protests, most think of the process from the perspective of the protester. However, the contract awardee is not without a voice in the bid protest process at GAO. While the agency will generally defend the contract award decision regardless, the awardee itself can also have a seat at the table. In this installment in our “Why File” series, we will explore why a contractor would want to file an intervention in a GAO Bid Protest.
Continue readingWhy File: A Rule of Two Protest
The Rule of Two is the federal contracting rule requiring agencies to set aside a solicitation for competition only between small businesses when there are at least two small businesses that could do the work for a fair price. But that rule does have some exceptions. These exceptions can make it difficult to know the situations that would justify filing a Rule of Two protest. Read on to find out.
Continue readingWhy File: A Request For Equitable Adjustment
If you are a government contractor, odds are you have faced a situation where some aspect of the contract you were performing changed outside of your control, or you ran into something that neither you nor the government expected. As a result, your work requirements likely changed, and with that, your costs likely changed as well. When this happens, there are multiple paths to getting reimbursements for those new costs, and one of the most common ones is a request for equitable adjustment. Today, we’re going to explore when you should submit a request for equitable adjustment as opposed to the other routes.
Continue readingWhy File: A NAICS Code Appeal
A NAICS code appeal can be a powerful tool for altering the competitive landscape of a bid by changing what size of business is allowed to submit a bid and thereby either increasing or decreasing the potential competitor pool. This post explores some of the important reasons for considering filing a NAICS code appeal. While NAICS codes appeals are not that common, they have a fairly high rate of success.
Continue readingWhy File: A GAO Pre-Award Protest
For our third entry in our “Why File” series, we will be covering one of the two big bid protest routes, a “pre-award” Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest. Most contractors are fairly familiar with GAO bid protests that occur after an agency makes their award decision (more on this in a later “Why File” post). But contractors may be less familiar with pre-award bid protests at GAO. We will cover some of the most common reasons pre-award protests are filed at GAO, based primarily on contracting regulations and bid protest cases. As always, please keep in mind, despite the commonalities discussed below, the question of whether to protest is highly fact-specific and demands careful consideration.
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