A federal judge in Kentucky has enjoined the federal government from enforcing the federal contractor vaccine mandate in three states. As of November 30, 2021, a judged issued a preliminary injunction against the contractor mandate for Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.
Continue reading…Event: What Government Contractors Should Know About the Vaccine Mandate Webinar, Hosted by Catalyst
If you missed it before, here’s your chance to attend one of Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC‘s most popular webinars.
Please join me, Shane McCall, and Steven Koprince on December 1 for this informative webinar hosted by Catalyst on the vaccine mandate. We will cover which contractors and subcontractors must comply, which employees are covered, when employees must be vaccinated, how employers should confirm employee vaccination, and much more, including the latest guidance from the Safer Federal Workplace Task Force.
It’s easy to register: just click here. See you on today!
Key Personnel Unavailability Leads to Sustained GAO Protest
Key personnel are an important term in many proposals. Establishing the resume, experience, and availability of personnel that will perform major functions of a contract is a key (dad joke) aspect of a winning proposal. As one offeror found out, when key personnel become unavailable, the technical acceptability of the entire offer can be in jeopardy.
Continue reading…Happy Thanksgiving & Native American Heritage Day from SmallGovCon
It’s that time of year to gather with friends and family and feast on some wonderful comfort food. We have been polling our staff on their favorite holiday dish and the answers have ranged from pumpkin pie to turkey to the traditional green bean casserole. They all sound good to me!
We have a lot to be thankful for and we are grateful for all of those readers who have been reading our blogs. We hope you have found them informative and we will continue to provide relevant content in regards to federal government contracting into the coming new year. Our office will be closed Thursday and Friday for our staff to recharge the batteries and connect with family and friends. Have a great holiday weekend!
Five Things I’ve Learned as a Government Contracts Lawyer
As many readers know, I am retiring from private legal practice to focus on teaching, writing, and other interests. The wonderful team of government contracts professionals here at Koprince McCall Pottroff will continue assisting contractors with their legal needs. I couldn’t be prouder of our wonderful team of attorneys and staff!
For my last SmallGovCon blog post, in the tradition of our “Five Things You Should Know” series, here are five big-picture things I’ve learned in my years as a government contracts attorney. Oh, and whether this is the first post of mine you’ve read or the 1,200th (yes, I’ve written that many here on SmallGovCon), thank you!
Continue reading…The SBA Proposes New Rules to Help Small Businesses in Obtaining Past Performance
The SBA proposes to amend its regulations to implement new provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2021 that provides small business contractors with new tools to establish past performance when bidding on prime contracts for Government procurements. The proposed rules would add two new methods for small businesses to obtain qualifying past performance. One proposed rule would allow a small business with no relevant past performance of its own to use the past performance of a joint venture in which it took part. The second proposed rule would require prime contractors to provide, to small businesses that served as a first-tier subcontractor, a record of the business’s past performance for use by the small business in future proposals.
The proposed rules are here.
Continue reading…2021 GAO Bid Protest Report Reveals Nearly Half of Protests are Successful
GAO has released its annual bid protest report. Along with mashed potatoes and stuffing, it’s one of our favorite holiday traditions at SmallGovCon. This report came over a month earlier than last year, making this more of a Thanksgiving treat than Christmas this year.
A couple key takeaways are (1) the key effectiveness metric, showing numbers of sustains and corrective actions at GAO, was 48% for the 2021 fiscal year and (2) total bid protest numbers are down slightly, continuing a trend from the last few years.
Continue reading…