Supreme Court Declines to Hear VA Rule of Two Challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case Monday that could have upended the Rule of Two’s priority over the AbilityOne program for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ procurements.
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COFC Strikes a Blow to VA-Verified VOSBs and SDVOSBs
A few months ago, GAO confirmed that where VA uses GPO as its buying agent, it still must to comply with the Rule of Two in 38 U.S.C. 8127(d) (see our blog post on the case ). After VA took corrective action, however, another bid protest was again filed, but this time in the Court […]
AbilityOne Contractor Loses Work to SDVOSB, Has Protest Dismissed
As recently as May, the Department of Veterans Affairs told a nonprofit helping to employ blind workers that it intended to renew its contract. The organization was shocked, therefore, when on July 30, the VA issued a notice of award to a service-disabled veteran-owned small business. To make matters worse, the nonprofit’s GAO protest of […]
Hey VA! You Can’t Avoid the Rule of Two By Using GPO To Do Your Shopping.
It’s no secret that the VA has tried to find ways around the statutorily-mandated rule of two–i.e. VA must set aside procurements for VOSBS if it has a reasonable expectation that it will receive fair and reasonable offers from two or more veteran-owned small businesses. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has already told VA, in […]
VA Agrees that Rule of Two Has Priority Over AbilityOne Procurement List
Statute A tells you to solve Problem X one way. Statute B tells you to solve Problem X a completely different way. How do you reconcile these two conflicting mandates? The Federal Circuit encountered this exact problem in 2018, and in response to its holding, the VA has now issued a class deviation to reflect […]
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, […]
“Eliminate Most DoD Small Business Set-Asides,” Says Section 809 Panel
The Section 809 Panel has recommended that Congress eliminate most small business set-asides for DoD acquisitions. The Panel would replace the longstanding set-aside system with a meager five percent small business price preference. For small government contractors, this recommendation is the policy equivalent of a five-alarm fire. Small contractors may need to fight hard to […]