Section 809 Panel Achieves $1 Coin Clause Removal

Posted on November 12, 2018 by Shane McCall

If, like us, you spend your days reading through the FAR, you might suppose that there are opportunities to streamline the regulations. Congress agreed, at least for DOD acquisitions, and as part of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, created the Section 809 panel, an independent advisory panel on streamlining acquisition regulations. The panel is working to improve many aspects of acquisitions law, including, as we’ve written about, the definition of subcontract.

A recent, small (but helpful) recommendation was the elimination of a FAR clause involving the $1 coin.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: November 5-9, 2018

Posted on November 9, 2018 by SmallGovConContributor

This week, Lawrence got its first taste of cold and snow for the season. I have to say, it was not a welcomed arrival. Hopefully it’s warmer in your neck of the woods.

Let’s all warm our hearts with this week’s edition of SmallGovCon Week In Review. In today’s WIR, we’ll look at a joint VA/SBA partnership to benefit SDVOSBs, DoD’s effort to use its expanded “middle tier” contracting vehicles, and more government contractors behaving badly.

Have a great weekend!

SBA OHA: Contracting Officer Can’t Extend Size Appeal Deadline

Posted on November 7, 2018 by SmallGovConContributor

When you hear “15 days,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps, you pay your employees every 15 days. Maybe your birthday or favorite holiday happens to be in 15 days. Or if you’re like me, you might think that 15 days is two days fewer than Thirteen Days, a great movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Whatever your brain conjures up, don’t forget this: 15 days is the time limit to appeal an SBA size determination. Period. And nothing the contracting officer says can change it.

SBA Proposes Big Changes to the HUBZone Program (Continued)

Posted on November 7, 2018 by SmallGovConContributor

Big changes could be coming to the HUBZone program. On October 31, the SBA published a proposed rule that, if adopted, would bring clarity to the HUBZone regulations. Yesterday, we posted about proposed changes to the HUBZone certification, compliance, and protest processes.

In this post, we wanted to bring you up to speed on some of the more substantive revisions to the way HUBZone employees are defined and counted under the proposed rule.

Who’s the Ombudsman? Proposed FAR Rule Requires Clarity

Posted on November 6, 2018 by SmallGovConContributor

When GAO lacks jurisdiction to hear a protest over a task or delivery order, contractors have the right to complain to an ombudsman. Implementation of the ombudsman right, however, has been haphazard at best.

Last week, the DoD, GSA, and NASA–the entities comprising the FAR Council–proposed a rule to help alleviate this issue for IDIQ contracts.

GAO Fends Off ‘Killer Tomato’ Protest

Posted on November 6, 2018 by SmallGovConContributor

I always knew my legal career would some day overlap with my love of terrible movies, before-they-were-stars trivia, and naval warfare. Today is that day.

When I saw that GAO had dismissed a “killer tomato” protest, several things came to mind. First, I thought, wait, are they talking about “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes“? Then I though, wait, wasn’t George Clooney in that—and didn’t he have a terrible 80’s mullet? Naturally, my curiosity got the best of me. I clicked.

HUBZone Program: SBA’s Proposed Rule Clears Up Some Common Misconceptions

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Steven Koprince

Last week, the SBA released a proposal to overhaul the HUBZone Program. The proposed rule will make major changes to almost all aspects of the HUBZone Program, and my colleagues are covering those changes in a series of two posts on SmallGovCon.

But while the proposed HUBZone Program rule changes will garner most of the headlines, the SBA also has used the proposed rule as an opportunity to clear up a few very common HUBZone Program misconceptions–such as the notion that so-called “jobsite employees” don’t count toward the 35% HUBZone residency requirement.

Here are three of the most important clarifications SBA offered in the proposed HUBZone rule.