Federal contractors often ask: “It is better to team up for government work with a prime-sub arrangement or with a joint venture?” Well, (spoiler alert) the answer is: it depends. But I won’t leave you with just that. This three-part series will provide insight on some of the major differences between these two types of “teams” that offerors should consider when making the decision between a joint venture or prime/subcontractor team in competing for and performing federal contracts. While this series will not provide a comprehensive list of all the differences between these two types of teams, it will cover some of the big ones that seem to come up more frequently in this decision-making process. Our first article focused on workshare, and our second, on past performance. This final article of the three-part series will discuss the parties’ relationship with the government and with each other in both types of teams.
Continue reading…Upcoming Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC Events – February 2022
Hello Readers! We have three events this month that we’d like to invite you to attend. All three events are complimentary, so we hope to see you there!
Continue reading…IHS Issues Final Rules Implementing the Buy Indian Act
On January 13, 2022 the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its Final Rule governing the implementation of the Buy Indian Act (Act). This rule clarifies the preference for Indian-owned and controlled businesses and removes barriers by alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens. If you’re a frequent visitor to our blogs, you may be thinking, “wait what, didn’t you just blog about this last November?” Actually, the subject of the blog about the Buy Indian Act from November was the proposed rules governing the Buy Indian Act issued by the Department of Interior (DOI) covering procurements of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). HHS’s Final Rules issued on January 13th (Final Rule) supplement and amend regulations guiding implementation of the Buy Indian Act for procurements by the Indian Health Service (IHS).
Given the long scattershot implementation of the Buy Indian Act, how the Act it is applied to different agencies, the multiple notices of proposed changes to the Buy Indian Act, along with the general decentralized structure of procurement regulations, it can all be a bit confusing. A bit of background may help to put it all in context.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 24-28, 2022
Happy Friday, Readers! We have a fresh batch of federal government contracting articles for you. Yes, we’re all tired of dealing with COVID-19, but it’s important to stay up-to-date, so we have the latest news about the vaccine mandates and how the pandemic has affected contracts for you. In fact, Shane McCall, Equity Partner of Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC, is quoted in the Construction Dive article about force majeure clauses losing their punch. We also have an interesting article about contrasting results from surveys about customer experience with federal agencies. Read about these topics and more below. Also, don’t forget to visit our blog for even more federal government contracting news.
Continue reading…White House Releases New Details on Made in America Council to Make Domestic Preferences More Uniform
The White House has announced the launch of a Made in America Council, which will be the overarching group to “coordinate and advance the Made in America Office’s work across the entirety of the Federal Government.” This represents a new strategy for things like the Buy American Act and related policies, because it will try to centralize these efforts to some degree, instead of having them disbursed throughout the various federal agencies. Below are some of the highlights from this announcement.
Continue reading…CIO-SP4 Amendments 12, 13, 14 Update Submission Date and Experience Reporting Method
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) NITAAC has been busy over the past month with three amendments to the CIO-SP4. Amendments 12, 13, and 14 primarily revise submission dates and make changes to the reporting of past experience examples. Below is a summary of the pertinent details from these amendments, as we know this is an important procurement for many contractors.
Continue reading…Data Rights and the Government Contractor: Restricted Computer Software
After going over limited data rights in our last post on intellectual property in government contracts, it is only natural we discuss the similar but distinct concept of restricted computer software. As we noted in the limited data rights post, this only concerns contracts regulated by FAR, or, in other words, non-Department of Defense contracts. If you’re dealing with the Department of Defense, the Defense Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) applies. DFARS has similar provisions but also differs in meaningful ways. We’ll discuss DFARS at a later post.
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