Govology Webinar: Avoiding Common Bid Protest Mistakes, September 11, 2025

Posted on August 28, 2025 by Shane McCall

Bid protests are an unavoidable part of federal contracting—and they seem to be happening more often as competition grows. What many contractors don’t realize is that the outcome of a protest is often determined before it’s even filed. Understanding the rules, timelines, and procedures is critical to protecting your company’s chances.

In this focused course, federal government contracting attorneys John Holtz and Gregory Weber will break down the most common mistakes contractors make during the protest process—and how to avoid them.

Key topics include:

The difference between bid protests and size/status protests
What pre-bid protests are and why they matter
Critical deadlines and how debriefs affect them
How to get the most from a debrief
Frequent pitfalls that can hurt the protest success

Please join us for this informative Govology webinar by registering here.

GAO Report Discusses Potential Reforms for Fee Shifting and Enhanced Pleading Standards in Protests

Posted on August 25, 2025 by Stephanie Ellis

It’s no secret to anyone that the landscape of federal government contracting has been rapidly changing in recent years. For instance, there have been concerns that mentor-protégé joint ventures under the SBA’s Mentor-Protégé Program have been too successful. More recently, changes have been made to small business contracting goals to reduce the agency level requirements for small disadvantaged business (including 8(a) Program) prime contracts. Today, based on a recent GAO report, we are going to take a look at the current state of GAO bid protests which, if you didn’t know, have been around for nearly a century!

SmallGovCon Week in Review: August 18-22, 2025

Posted on August 22, 2025 by Shane McCall

Happy Friday! It’s beginning to look like the Fall season is upon us, with the kids going back to school and football season starting. Our college town is buzzing with activities as the students arrive to start the semester. We hope you have a wonderful weekend and can catch a game or two.

This week in federal government contracting, take a look at articles showing potential GSA acquisitions for an AI procurement system, increased use of best in class contracts, and new cybersecurity requirements.

OHA Says: For a Size Protest, Bring the Receipts or Face Dismissal

Posted on August 22, 2025 by Annie Birney

Filing a size protest requires more than just pointing the finger at the protested concern and hoping SBA decides to investigate further. The protest must contain at least some level of specific information that demonstrates why the protested concern is other than small.

SBA regulations, in particular, require that the size protest be “sufficiently specific to provide reasonable notice as to the grounds upon which the protested concern’s size is questioned.” 13 C.F.R. § 121.1007(b). The protest should provide a basis for the belief or allegation. In other words, the protester can’t simply allege a concern is other than small or affiliated without providing specific information to support the claim. SBA warns that a protest lacking “sufficient specificity” will be dismissed.

Now, it doesn’t happen too often, but a recent decision shows that SBA will dismiss protests when it finds the initial support to be lacking.

SBA Aims to Streamline SBIC Program, Make Investment Easier

Posted on August 19, 2025 by Shane McCall

For years, the Small Business Administration (SBA) has run a program for Small Business Investment Companies (or SBICs) to, in part, allow for “low-cost, government-backed capital that you can use to increase private investments in U.S. small businesses.” For small business federal contractors, there is also an affiliation benefit that applies to SBICs. But, we have often heard from clients and others that it is not straightforward to work with an SBIC. Today, we look at a rule recently proposed by SBA that aims to make the SBIC program more flexible and easier to work with, entitled “Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Regulatory Amendments.”

TAA Can Apply to Small Business Set-Aside: COC Clarifies Trade Agreements Act and Buy American Act Applicability

Posted on August 15, 2025 by John Holtz

The Trade Agreements Act (TAA) and Buy American Act (BAA) are among the most complex regulatory systems in federal contracting. There’s been a lot of confusion from both contractors and agencies on when they apply to a procurement and how. We have written on the BAA and TAA in the past. Recently, the Court of Federal Claims issued a decision discussing how the two laws interact, and showed that how they apply depends significantly on the circumstances of the procurement, providing some clarification on a past GAO decision we wrote on as well (which held that the TAA is inapplicable to small business set-asides). We will explore that here.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: August 11-15, 2025

Posted on August 15, 2025 by Shane McCall

Happy Friday to our SmallGovCon readers. I just got back from a lovely trip through upstate New York and Canada to visit Niagara Falls. Here is the view of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the waterfalls in Niagara Falls. The view of the falls is majestic and the cooler weather in that area was a welcome relief. We also visited Saratoga Battlefield and got to learn how the first battle against the British was won by the US military. Hope you are having a great end to the summer. Here are some key updates from federal contracting, including some potential legislation on procurement reform and updates to the FAR.