Webinar Announcement! Shaping Opportunities in the New GovCon Climate, May 8, 2025, 11:00am CDT

Posted on April 24, 2025 by Shane McCall

Please join Greg Weber and me to discuss how recent executive orders are having an effect on the contracting landscape, and how they interact with important new small business rules and updates, joint venture changes and guidance, and recent cases. This discussion will focus on existing small business and evaluation rules and regulations, and how those fit in with recent orders and reorganization efforts.

Key issues include:

Strategic Capabilities to Capacity – Multiple Award Contracts, JV, 8(a) Program, Mentor-Protege, Teaming Arrangrements
Strategic Competencies – Past Performance Regulations and Solicitation Language
Current Contracts – Bid Protests, Selling SDVOSB, WOSB or other socioeconomic businesses and affect on contracts and proposals

GovCon FAQs: It’s Been Two Years–Has My Joint Venture Reached the End of the Road?

Posted on April 22, 2025 by Annie Birney

The lifespan of a joint venture is a frequently asked question that can be hard to find in SBA’s regulations if you don’t know where to look. Alternatively, people hear about the “two-year rule” and assume that’s the answer. This question comes up frequently because, like many topics in federal contracting, the answer requires some digging into the regulations and specifically the affiliation rules.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: April 14-18, 2025

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Shane McCall

Welcome to the latest edition of the Week in Review. It’s been a busy week in the federal government contracting world and the attorney-authors at SmallGovCon are striving to provide you with the latest updates. Some key stories from this week include executive orders on massive procurement reform (read our summary here) and the push for commercial IT solutions, to ongoing agency-level budget tightening, it’s been a wild ride. Have a great weekend!

Why File: A HUBZone Status Protest

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Shane McCall

Lately, it seems there has been an uptick in questions we receive at webinars, on the blog, and from prospective clients about the HUBZone program. There may be more interest in this program than there has been in the past as it could be a key tool for procurement designations in the future. At the same time, the HUBZone program, while making some aspects of the program more flexible, has also put more scrutiny on current and aspiring HUBZone contractors. This post talks about one process that puts a lot of scrutiny on HUBZone contractors: a HUBZone status protest.

Breaking: EO Mandates “FAR 2.0” & Deep Dive Into Federal Procurement Efficiency

Posted on April 16, 2025 by Nicole Pottroff

Yesterday, the new administration issued a new Executive Order (EO) officially requiring a reformation of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and a thorough review of the federal procurement system in general. Along with related EOs, they direct the Office of Federal Public Procurement Policy (OFPP), the FAR Council, and the heads of and “senior acquisition and procurement officials” from our federal agencies to create the “FAR 2.0”–as it has aptly been deemed. And they have 180 days to do it.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: April 7-11, 2025

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Shane McCall

Happy Friday! We hope you had a great week. This week in federal government contracting: GSA has announced a fresh round of OASIS Plus unrestricted awardees, expanding opportunities for vendors in the professional services space, and OMB also released memos signaling new AI policy goals. You can read more about this and other federal government contracting news in the articles below. Have a great weekend!

Update: SBA Proposed Rule Would Require “Rule of Two” Application to Multiple Award Contract Task and Delivery Orders (Part II)

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Nicole Pottroff

In Part I of this two-part blog, we covered an SBA proposed rule that would require agencies to apply the Rule of Two to most standard multiple award contracts (MACs) and task and delivery orders thereunder. In that blog, we covered the Rule of Two generally and the basics of SBA’s proposed changes to it. Well, as promised, this Part II blog is going to dig in a bit deeper to this proposed rule, its driving policies, and its potential impacts. But a whole lot has changed in the federal government contracting landscape (even since Part I of this blog). So, I will also address the elephant in the room (as best I can) by providing information regarding the big questions, “will the proposed rule stand a chance–and will there even still be a Rule of Two–under the new administration?“