Executive Order for Nondisplacement of Federal Workers Rescinded

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Indeed, Executive Order (EO) No. 14055, Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts, was only one of many predecessor EOs rescinded by the Trump administration shortly after taking office. But its removal has significant impacts on federal government contracting. As explained in EO No. 14055, its requirements sought to promote skilled worker retention in the federal workforce by placing requirements on contractors (and subcontractors) to provide the service employees from predecessor service contracts an essential right of first refusal of employment in successor or follow-on contracts. But EO No. 14055 has now been officially rescinded as part of the new administration’s stated policy to lift any orders it felt were “replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy.”

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End of the Line for Transmutation Agreements in 8(a) Program

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We at SmallGovCon have analyzed a number of key updates from the recent SBA final rule concerning HUBZone Program Updates and Clarifications, and Clarifications to Other Small Business Programs. But, with the rule covering many issues, there are aspects we didn’t cover everything. One small change could impact a number of companies seeking 8(a) Program certification or existing 8(a) Program Participants changing their ownership. The change affects married business owners in community property states and removes the requirement for transmutation agreements.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 27-31, 2025

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It’s Friday and time for another week in review, on this last day of January. We are so excited that our Kansas City Chiefs will be playing, once again, in the Super Bowl. We’re looking forward to the championship game against an impressive Philadelphia Eagles team, and a chance for the Chiefs to become the first team in NFL history to win three in a row. It should be a fun game.

And now we turn from football to this week in federal government contracting news, there is news of many executive orders, fundings freezes, and turnover of inspector generals. And when we say orders, freezes, and turnovers, we’re not talking about getting the snacks ready for next Sunday.

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Webinar Event! Top 21 Legal Mistakes in Federal Government Contracting, February 13, 2025, 1:00pm-2:30pm CST

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Federal contracting rules and laws are complicated, and the rules aren’t always intuitive. Many contractors make legal mistakes routinely, involving everything from completing SAM profiles to calculating small business size to communicating with government contracting officers. Federal government contracts attorneys, Nicole Pottroff & Annie Birney of Koprince McCall Pottroff, will discuss the top 21 most common legal mistakes that contractors make time and time again. You will learn what these common mistakes are and how to avoid them. Please join us for this free webinar hosted by the Alaska APEX Accelerators. Register here.

Making Unsuccessful Protesters Pay? Enhanced Pleading Standards? A Look at Proposed Changes to GAO Protest Rules Under the 2025 NDAA

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Back in 2017, in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress passed a limited program for GAO protests of Department of Defense contracts where certain large contractors would have to reimburse the DoD for the cost of processing unsuccessful GAO protests. We reviewed that rule here. Congress repealed that provision with the 2021 NDAA. Now, the “losing protester pays” system is back with a vengeance. The 2025 NDAA creates a similar provision, but now the language appears to apply to all businesses that bring an unsuccessful GAO protest on a DoD contract. Coupled with enhanced pleading standards and an increase to the task order value jurisdiction requirement, this will make GAO protests of DoD contracts more burdensome on federal contractors. With that said, it is important to note: The 2025 NDAA only orders that the GAO and DoD produce a proposal that addresses the above for review by Congress. It does not absolutely mandate that the government then adopt said proposal. We look at these changes in this post.

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FAR Council Establishes New Size and Status Rerepresentation Rules

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The FAR Council recently published a final rule dealing with small business certification issues, effective on January 17, 2025. This final rule came about to ensure that certain parts of the FAR and SBA rules are consistent. The change? Adding additional circumstances that require an awardee to rerepresent its size and/or socioeconomic status for orders placed under a multiple-award contract (MAC) per FAR 52.219-28(c) Postaward Small Business Program Rerepresentation.

However, this FAR rule updates the regulation to match the SBA rule that had been issued in 2020, back when SBA consolidated its Mentor-Protégé Program. In the mean time, SBA had updated its recertification rules as discussed in this post outlining the new recertification rules. Under the recent regulation, SBA will be implementing its strategy to include new 13 C.F.R. § 125.12, which sets forth disqualifying size and status events, which would render a business “ineligible for future set-aside or reserved awards, including awards of set-aside or reserved orders against pre-existing unrestricted or set-aside multiple award contracts” if it causes the business to be other than small. In addition, “for a multiple award small business set-aside or reserve, a concern that recertified as other than small or other than the required small business program would be ineligible to receive options.

Unfortunately, the FAR rule will have to be updated again to deal with SBA’s January 2025 rule. Until then, below is what the FAR rule contains. Contractors must be aware of both rules to stay on top of their small business recertification requirements. And contractors may need to inform agencies about what the new SBA rules state.

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