IHS Issues Final Rules Implementing the Buy Indian Act

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On January 13, 2022 the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued its Final Rule governing the implementation of the Buy Indian Act (Act). This rule clarifies the preference for Indian-owned and controlled businesses and removes barriers by alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens. If you’re a frequent visitor to our blogs, you may be thinking, “wait what, didn’t you just blog about this last November?” Actually, the subject of the blog about the Buy Indian Act from November was the proposed rules governing the Buy Indian Act issued by the Department of Interior (DOI) covering procurements of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). HHS’s Final Rules issued on January 13th  (Final Rule) supplement and amend regulations guiding implementation of the Buy Indian Act for procurements by the Indian Health Service (IHS).

Given the long scattershot implementation of the  Buy Indian Act, how the Act it is applied to different agencies, the multiple notices of proposed changes to the Buy Indian Act, along with the general decentralized structure of procurement regulations, it can all be a bit confusing. A bit of background may help to put it all in context.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 24-28, 2022

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Happy Friday, Readers! We have a fresh batch of federal government contracting articles for you. Yes, we’re all tired of dealing with COVID-19, but it’s important to stay up-to-date, so we have the latest news about the vaccine mandates and how the pandemic has affected contracts for you. In fact, Shane McCall, Equity Partner of Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC, is quoted in the Construction Dive article about force majeure clauses losing their punch. We also have an interesting article about contrasting results from surveys about customer experience with federal agencies. Read about these topics and more below. Also, don’t forget to visit our blog for even more federal government contracting news.

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White House Releases New Details on Made in America Council to Make Domestic Preferences More Uniform

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The White House has announced the launch of a Made in America Council, which will be the overarching group to “coordinate and advance the Made in America Office’s work across the entirety of the Federal Government.” This represents a new strategy for things like the Buy American Act and related policies, because it will try to centralize these efforts to some degree, instead of having them disbursed throughout the various federal agencies. Below are some of the highlights from this announcement.

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CIO-SP4 Amendments 12, 13, 14 Update Submission Date and Experience Reporting Method

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) NITAAC has been busy over the past month with three amendments to the CIO-SP4. Amendments 12, 13, and 14 primarily revise submission dates and make changes to the reporting of past experience examples. Below is a summary of the pertinent details from these amendments, as we know this is an important procurement for many contractors.

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Data Rights and the Government Contractor: Restricted Computer Software

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After going over limited data rights in our last post on intellectual property in government contracts, it is only natural we discuss the similar but distinct concept of restricted computer software. As we noted in the limited data rights post, this only concerns contracts regulated by FAR, or, in other words, non-Department of Defense contracts. If you’re dealing with the Department of Defense, the Defense Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) applies. DFARS has similar provisions but also differs in meaningful ways. We’ll discuss DFARS at a later post.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: January 17-21, 2022

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Hello, Readers. We’re feeling the effects of the cold snap here in Lawrence, KS. If you are, too, we hope you’re keeping warm. There’s nothing like a mug of hot chocolate, a soft blanket, indoor heating, and (of course) a roundup of the week’s federal contracting news to fight the chill.

As usual, we’ve got the highlights for you covering what happened this past week in federal government contracting news. Hot topics include: updates on vaccine mandates and pandemic response initiatives, cyber security, and several government fraud, bribe, and theft schemes being brought to light. Read more below and don’t forget to check out our blog for even more federal government contracting news.

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GAO Sustains Protest Where Agency Fails to Properly Justify “Brand Name Only” Requirement

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When an agency restricts a solicitation to a single brand-name, the agency must appropriately justify its decision, even where the solicitation is competed among holders of a governmentwide acquisition contract.

In a recent case, the GAO sustained a protest, holding that an agency violated the FAR by failing to properly justify its brand-name restriction.

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