The White House has issued a memorandum that calls for specific procedures for Increasing Small Business Participation on Multiple-Award Contracts. To that end, OMB has recommended steps such as increasing small business order set-asides and maximizing small business set-asides across multiple types of contracts. Perhaps most importantly, OMB has directed federal agencies to apply the small business Rule of Two for all orders, which should has the potential of leading to an increase in small business set-asides. Below, we dive into these new recommendations.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 22-26, 2024
Happy Friday! We hope you had a productive week. We are slowly exiting the deep freeze that we have been enduring the past few weeks, here in the midwest. We’ve had snow, ice, rain and sub degree temperatures! Not fun! We are looking forward to seeing the sun again and warmer days. Hope you are doing well and looking forward to a nice weekend.
This week in federal government contracting news saw some interesting stories, including a push to streamline contracting and GSA not following procurement rules.
Continue reading…CMMC 2.0 and You: A Look at the Department of Defense’s Proposed New Cybersecurity Rules
In 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced the development of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program, which was then implemented in 2020 as an interim rule. We blogged about that way back in 2020. This program was designed to give a certification to contractors based on the depth and effectiveness of their cybersecurity systems to help ensure that contractors implement required security measures. As DoD put it, “[t]he CMMC model consists of maturity processes and cybersecurity best practices from multiple cybersecurity standards, frameworks, and other references, as well as inputs from the broader community.” In late December 2023, the DoD issued proposed changes to the CMMC program for “CMMC 2.0,” a plan that DoD began work on back in 2021. In this post, we will take a general look at these proposed changes.
Continue reading…SDVOSB Updates: SBA VetCert Achievements, JV Certification, and NDAA Contracting Goal
It’s been one year since the U.S. Small business Administration (SBA) took over the federal government’s veteran-owned small business contracting program from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and a lot has happened in that amount of time. Here, we discuss how SBA has handled the Veteran Small Business Certification Program in the first year and some of SBA’s achievments. And in other big SDVOSB news, the federal government will be providing more contracts for veteran-owned entities under the National Defense Authorization Act’s increased contracting goals.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 15-19, 2024
Happy Friday! Brrr, another very cold day here in the Midwest. We are looking for relief next week as the forecast is set for warmer temperatures after this deep freeze. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are ready! We hope that you are staying warm in your neck of the woods.
This week in federal government contracting saw some important stories, including the one-year anniversary of the SBA takeover of the SDVOSB program and the new defense industrial strategy.
Continue reading…Government Claim Appeals Nuggets from the ASBCA and CBCA 2023 Annual Reports
Everyone has New Year traditions. Some do resolutions, some take vacations, some simply buy a fun new calendar. Here at SmallGovCon we like reading the different federal contracting annual reports. These annual reports function as almost yearbooks or like a friend’s yearly holiday card that discusses all the highlights of the past year. These annual reports are a great resource for contractors to catch up on what a specific agency or tribunal has been up to, and plan for the year ahead. In this quick review of the CBCA and ASBCA’s annual reports, we will cover some of those takeaways. Who knows, maybe in reading this post, you can find something that gives you your own federal contracting new year’s resolution.
Continue reading…SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 8-12, 2024
Happy Friday! Boy, were we hit with a major snowstorm this week with very cold temperatures sweeping in from the north! We dug out just in time for a cold blast to arrive today and our Kansas City Chiefs have a playoff game at home this weekend, with the high expected to be a balmy 6 degrees! Brrr. I’ll be watching from my climate-controlled living room. Go Chiefs!
This week in federal government contracting news saw some White House initiatives for better contracting, as well as updates on cybersecurity and AI in the federal space.
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