Congress Approves Government-wide SDVOSB Certification Requirement; Transfers CVE to SBA

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Steven Koprince

The House and Senate have agreed to eliminate service-disabled veteran-owned small business self-certification and adopt a government-wide SDVOSB certification requirement, while transferring control of the certification process from the VA to the SBA.

The Conference Report on the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act would require government-wide SDVOSB certification (eventually) and transfer control of the the Center for Verification and Evaluation from the VA to the SBA. Assuming the President signs the bill into law (which, unlike the typical NDAA, remains to seen), SDVOSB self-certification–which is still the law for non-VA contracts–is on its way out.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: Nov. 23 – Dec. 4, 2020

Posted on December 4, 2020 by Shane McCall

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is staying safe and healthy! This week, we’ve got an extra helping of news for our roundup of federal contracting updates.

Important updates from the past two weeks included the final CMMC acquisition rule, an update about category management, and some reminders that the Department of Labor is enforcing wage rules for federal contractors.

GAO Dismisses Challenge to Brief Explanation of Award

Posted on December 4, 2020 by SmallGovCon Contributor

Depending on the type of procurement, an agency will often provide either a brief explanation or debriefing after an award is made. But those explanations are difficult to challenge, as a recent GAO decision confirmed.

In the decision, GAO dismissed a protester’s challenge to the sufficiency of a two-paragraph explanation. Protester failed to show competitive prejudice or regulatory deficiency in the explanation. Since the protester could not demonstrate either of these conditions resulted from the explanation, GAO dismissed these allegations.

When protesting to GAO after receiving a brief explanation, what do you need to know in order to get your foot in the door? Let’s take a look.

OHA: CVE Appeals Go Directly to Us, Not CVE

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Nicole Pottroff

OHA recently confirmed it lacked jurisdiction over a CVE appeal mistakenly filed with CVE, not OHA, by the deadline. You might be thinking: “Oh come on, the CVE appeal was filed with CVE on time!” But OHA’s strict timeliness rules make no exception for any such mistakes in the CVE appeal process. In fact, OHA disclaims the authority to even consider a late appeal, regardless of whether or not it was timely (but improperly) filed with CVE itself.

Event: Proactive COVID-19 Response for Federal Government Contractors

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Steven Koprince

With COVID-19 cases on the rise, all of us are doing our best to stay safe and healthy. But for federal contractors, the COVID spike also brings increased risks of delays and other problems under active government contracts.

On Thursday, December 3, please join me for “COVID-19: Best Practices for Government Contractors,” a virtual session hosted by the UTSA SBDC Center for Government Contracting/COVID Business Recovery Accelerator. I’ll provide you with a step-by-step proactive approach for handling the potential for COVID-related interruptions and delays to your contracts–and help you ensure that you get paid.

To register, follow this link. I hope to see you there!

VA CVE Applications: Average Processing Time is 34 Days

Posted on November 30, 2020 by Steven Koprince

In some circles, the VA CVE application process for SDVOSB/VOSB certification has a reputation as being very cumbersome and time-consuming. But while applying for verification isn’t exactly fun, it doesn’t take an extraordinarily long time for most new applicants to be verified. In fact, according to the VA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, the average processing time is a mere 34 days.