SmallGovCon Week In Review March 11 – March 15, 2019

Posted on March 15, 2019 by SmallGovConContributor

Happy Friday, everyone! If you’re a college basketball fan (who isn’t?), this is one of the best times of the year. Things stay pretty interesting around our office in March and April, between our assortment of KU, Duke, and North Carolina fans. We hope you enjoy the games this weekend!

Before tipoff, let’s rundown the latest government contracting news. In this week’s edition of the Week In Review, we’ll discuss DoD’s ongoing cloud computing legal battle, GAO’s report on health and safety of defense contractors’ employees, the government’s end-of-year buying spree, and more government contractors behaving badly.

Have a great weekend!

5 Things You Should Know: The Nonmanufacturer Rule

Posted on March 13, 2019 by SmallGovConContributor

Editor’s note: For more information, check out our updated post on the nonmanufacturer rule.

To qualify as a small business under most set-aside or sole source contracts seeking manufactured products or supplies, SBA’s regulations require an offeror to be the item’s manufacturer or, alternatively, comply with the nonmanufacturer rule.

In a prior post, we discussed 5 Things You Should Know about being the item’s manufacturer; in this post, we’ll discuss qualifying under the nonmanufacturer rule.

Thank You, APTAC!

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Steven Koprince

I am back in Kansas after a fantastic trip to Reno for the 2019 APTAC Spring Conference. On Sunday, I taught a four-hour class on the FAR, followed by a general session Monday on major changes in Government contracting.

By my count, this was the ninth time I’ve attended an APTAC conference, and they’ve all been great. It was wonderful to see so many old friends and make some new ones, too. Thank you to APTAC’s leadership for inviting me, and for Terri Bennett of our home-state Kansas PTAC, who introduced my general session. A big thanks also to Carroll Bernard of Govology and Joshua Frank of RSM Federal, who kindly allowed me to share their booth.

If you’re a government contractor who hasn’t yet connected with your local PTAC, you’re missing out. Visit the APTAC website to find out more.

GAO Denies Protest to LPTA Solicitation Ridden with Cost Uncertainty and Local Zoning Code Conflicts

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Nicole Pottroff

Federal agencies have long been afforded wide discretion in defining solicitation requirements to meet their contracting needs. But are a solicitation’s requirements acceptable even where they’re likely to conflict with local zoning codes? What about where the solicitation documents conflict with one another on whether certain requirements are considered “requirements” at all? And finally, is an LPTA procurement acceptable where such conflicts have undoubtedly led to price uncertainty among the bidders?

GAO says, “yes” to all of these, so long as the requirements meet the agency’s needs.

SmallGovCon Week In Review: March 4 – March 8, 2019

Posted on March 8, 2019 by SmallGovConContributor

Happy Friday, everyone! If there’s a better way to get the weekend started than the SmallGovCon Week In Review, we haven’t yet found it.

In this week’s edition, we’ll take a closer look at (never-ending) efforts to streamline the acquisition process, defense contractors that are putting workers in danger, projected #GovCon trends for 2019, proposed changes to SDVOSB and WOSB sole-source limits, and the FBI’s current investigation into the JEDI cloud procurement.

Have a great weekend!

GAO Investigates Buy American Act Exceptions and Waivers

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Shane McCall

The Buy American Act includes a number of waivers and exceptions. The Section 809 panel, for one, has called for expanding these exceptions, at least for the DOD. A recent GAO report examines how agencies apply the existing waivers and exceptions to the Buy American Act.

GAO’s general opinion is that agencies should improve their Buy American Act data reporting and enhance training on its waivers and for procument personnel. The report also provides some interesting details about the scope of the Buy American Act, and how agencies implement it.

Section 809 Panel Recommends Increased Flexibility of Time Frame to Spend DOD Contract Dollars

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Shane McCall

As we’ve written about before, the Section 809 Panel is the Congressionally-mandated group that has made a number of far-reaching recommendations to change current programs that affect DOD acquisitions.

The third volume of the Panel’s recommendations, stretching over 500 pages, includes a recommendation that DOD be granted additional flexibility to spend its appropriated dollars from Congress. As the Panel puts it, Congress should “[p]rovide increased flexibility to the time periods within which contract obligations are permitted to occur.”