SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 29- June 2, 2023

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Shane McCall

Happy Friday! We hope you had a great week and can take time to enjoy your weekend. We’ve been receiving a lot of rain here in the Midwest lately. The rain gauge was completely full and topped out at 4 1/2″ in a 12 hour span of time, this past week. Everything outside is looking beautiful and I’m guessing there will be a lot of lawn mowing going on this weekend.

We’ve included several articles that hopefully provide some good information concerning federal government contracting this week. Enjoy your weekend!

Event: Limitations on Subcontracting and the Nonmanufacturer Rule Webinar hosted by Texas El Paso APEX Accelerators, June 6, 10:00-11:30am MDT

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Nicole Pottroff

For small businesses and their teammates, few topics in government contracting are as confusing as the limitations on subcontracting for set-aside and socioeconomic sole source contracts. And if that isn’t stressful enough, the “LoS” is an area of heavy enforcement: get it wrong, and a contractor can face major penalties. The nonmanufacturer rule is another commonly misunderstood rule in the federal government contracting realm–but also, one we encounter quite often in our role assisting federal contractors.

In this course, government contracts attorneys, Nicole Pottroff & Stephanie Ellis, from Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC, will help you make sense of the limitations on subcontracting and nonmanufacturer rule. Using a step-by-step process and plenty of examples to bring these rules to life will help you ensure both understanding and compliance. Hope you will join us! Registration link here.

COFC Part II: Evaluation of Mentor-Protégé Joint Ventures

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Stephanie Ellis

A couple of weeks ago, I explored the Court of Federal Claims case of SH Synergy, LLC v. United States. In that blog, linked below, I looked at the first question raised in the protest that centered on the question of whether a mentor with two approved mentor protégé joint ventures with two different protégés under the SBA’s Mentor-Protégé Program is restricted from placing competing offers for a solicitation, in this case GSA’s Polaris solicitation. The answer to that was yes, they are restricted pursuant to 13 C.F.R. § 125.9. Because this decision was chocked full of useful information, and as promised, I’m back to look at the second issue tackled in this mammoth COFC opinion: did the solicitation’s terms, which required mentor-protégé joint ventures, woman-owned small business joint ventures, and service-disabled veteran owned small business joint ventures to be evaluated in the same manner as offerors, generally, violate procurement regulations? As you will see, the answer to that question is also yes, and it appears that this decision has already had an impact on other procurements.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 22-26, 2023

Posted on May 26, 2023 by Shane McCall

Happy Friday and we hope you are looking forward to a nice, long weekend. Monday, May 29 is Memorial Day and an official federal holiday, but do you know when and why it was established? If not, here’s a brief history lesson.

After the Civil war, in late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to countless fallen soldiers. In 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York as the official birthplace of Memorial Day because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May and declared Memorial Day a federal holiday. So, now you have the background story of how this day was established. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and here are some recent articles, including ones on a pending default, VA contracts, and small disadvantaged businsses.

OASIS+ Small Business: A Preview

Posted on May 25, 2023 by John Holtz

GSA has produced a number of successful contract vehicles over the years, one of which was the One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Solution or “OASIS.” This vehicle, used to acquire professional services (not including information technology) for the government, was so successful that GSA is in the process of preparing its sequel, OASIS+. On March 6, 2023, the agency issued its second draft RFP, and the final RFP is expected soon. In light of this, we’re going to go through some of the planned provisions for OASIS+ for small businesses, with special attention to the provisions on teaming arrangements and joint ventures.

OHA: Ill-Defined Joint Venture Agreement and State Law Requirements Means JV was Invalid

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Shane McCall

As readers of SmallGovCon know, SBA interprets its small business joint venture rules very strictly. A small business joint venture must follow all of SBA’s requirements down to the letter, or risk being found noncompliant. In a recent case, SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) examined how a joint venture was managed under the state law of Michigan and found that the joint venture was noncompliant with small business rules.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 15-19, 2023

Posted on May 19, 2023 by Shane McCall

It’s Friday, once again, and time for another week in review. We hope you had a great week. This week in federal government contracting news there were several articles on the VA electronic health records contract, the debt talks, as well as plenty of examples of why one should never try to pull one over on the federal government without facing the consequences. Enjoy your weekend!