Last week, SBA proposed big changes for some of its small business regulations, particularly those in the 8(a) Program. This blog post is Part 2 in our coverage of the proposed amendments (see Part 1 here) and will cover SBA’s potential changes to the procurement process for 8(a) contracts.
Continue reading…Subcontractor Experience Irrelevant Where Subcontractor Won’t Perform Similar Tasks, Says GAO
Prime and subcontractor teaming is a common way for contractors to leverage the experience of the team’s anticipated subcontractors to make proposals more attractive to federal clients, particularly when past performance is a substantial evaluation consideration.
This approach, however, recently ran into a snag when the proposed subcontractor was not going to perform the discrete work areas that its past performance experience supported, which lowered the past performance score of the bid. In the resulting protest, GAO concluded the agency got the evaluation right, and was not required to credit all of the subcontractor’s experience.
Continue reading…Beta.SAM.gov Has Arrived
Kind of like Disney+ for the federal contracting set, the FedBizOpps replacement went live today, November 12. But the parallels don’t stop there. Similar to the new streaming service’s technical issues, beta.SAM.gov has also experienced technical problems, based on our own experience sampling the site.
Continue reading…GAO Recommends Improvements For Comments on Proposed Federal Agency Rules
Have you ever felt like you were screaming into the void when submitting your comments to a proposed rule in the Federal Register? That your well thought out comments were being drowned out by a mass of other comments on a proposed rule or attributed to someone else? Have you wondered what agencies do with all that information you send them when you submit a comment on a proposed rule?
Well, GAO seems to have the same questions and concerns regarding the proposed rule comments process and has taken time these past few months to examine how agencies wade through comments on proposed rules, publish them, and clearly attribute identities to them.
Continue reading…VA Simplifies SDVOSB Reverification Process
A happy Veterans Day to all veterans and their families as we remember what you’ve done for our country. And there’s good reason for veteran business owners in particular to be happy. The Department of Veteran Affairs has recently made it easier to stay verified as a veteran-owned or service-disabled veteran-veteran owned small business.
Continue reading…GAO’s Annual Bid Protest Report Reflects Steady Effectiveness Rate
Just a few days ago, GAO issued its annual bid protest report for fiscal year 2019. Overall, while the volume of bid protests was down from previous years, the effectiveness rate of bid protests remained steady at close to 50%.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week In Review: November 4 – 8, 2019
It’s a busy travel period in our office. Just this week, I went to Warrensburg, Missouri for the Procurement Conference 2019 featuring Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler. It’s been great to chat with folks at these conferences.
Despite all the travel, we’ve been keeping up with federal contracting news. This week, we wanted to share a number of stories, including the Justice Department’s anti-price collusion “strike force”, a crackdown on supply chain cybersecurity, and the number of suspended and debarred contractors fell for the fourth year in a row.
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