This afternoon, news broke that Linda McMahon, the SBA’s Administrator, is expected to resign.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week In Review March 25 – March 29, 2019
It’s a rainy Friday here in Lawrence—the perfect type of weather to either take a nap or read something interesting. Because we can’t do the former, we’ll settle on the latter.
In this edition of the Week In Review, we’ll look at a list of the largest government contractors, a new secure cloud, and more examples of #govcon personnel behaving badly.
Have a great weekend!
Continue reading…DOE Expands Pool of Eligible Protégés under DOE Mentor-Protege Program
The Department of Energy has joined the ranks of government agencies aligning part of its respective small business regulations with the SBA.
The DOE has issued a class deviation expanding the pool of companies eligible to be proteges under the DOE mentor-protege program. This deviation comes almost 20 years after DOE first published guidelines for its formal DOE mentor-protégé program and almost three years after SBA formally established a government-wide mentor-protégé program.
Continue reading…Court of Federal Claims Decision Lends Support to VA’s SDVOSB Tiered Evaluation Scheme
In late 2017, we wrote that the VA was considering using tiered evaluations to simultaneously 1) comply with the VA’s statutory Rule of Two (and Kingdomware), and 2) address situations in which SDVOSBs and VOSBs might not offer “fair and reasonable” pricing.
Since then, the VA has instituted the tiered evaluation process for certain solicitations, using one of three approaches:
Continue reading…SCOTUS to Hear Arguments on Agency Power
Oral arguments are to be held today (March 27, 2019) on a U.S. Supreme Court case that may dramatically reduce federal agency power.
The case, Kisor v. Wilkie, asks the Supreme Court to overturn longstanding precedent which established that an agency’s interpretation of its own regulation deserves deference so long as it is reasonable. If the Supreme Court overturns this precedent, it could change the balance of power—in favor of government contractors—in certain disputes with agencies.
Continue reading…Don’t Forget the Email Attachment—Protest Denied
A protester recently lost an effort to get an agency to consider a late proposal arguing that it was emailed to the agency on the due date.
Even though the quote would have been less expensive than the awardee’s and this was a lowest-price technically-acceptable procurement, GAO denied the protest finding that the email was a few hours late and did not include the attached quotation.
Continue reading…Asking Too Much? GAO Grants Only 1% of Protester’s Claimed Costs
While GAO regulations allow GAO to recommend an agency reimburse a protester’s costs if the agency takes corrective action, recouping costs can still be an uphill battle.
In AeroSage, LLC, B-416381.6 (Comp. Gen. Mar. 13, 2019), decided before GAO last week, a protester requested $26,450 in costs, but was only reimbursed its initial filing fee, approximately 1 % of that amount.
Continue reading…