GAO Affirms any Discussions During Evaluations Must be Meaningful

Evaluation of offers is a crucial point in the procurement process. During this time period, an agency may, in certain procurements, reach out with discussion questions meant to bring clarity to the decision-making process. However, any such discussions must be meaningful.

As one offeror recently found out, meaningful discussions even apply in so-called simplified acquisitions.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: November 1-5, 2021

Happy Friday, Readers. We hope you had a productive week. November 11 is Veteran’s Day. This holiday started as a day to honor the heroism of those who died in our country’s service and was originally called Armistice Day. It fell on Nov. 11 because that is the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. However, in 1954, the holiday was changed to “Veterans Day” in order to recognize and honor all veterans of war. Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC would like to thank all veterans for your service.

As usual, there was a lot happening in federal government contracting this week. Here are a few articles that may be of interest. Have a great weekend.

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COVID-19 Federal Workforce Vaccination Deadline Extended to January 4, 2022

This morning, the White House released updated Covid-19 vaccination guidelines. This update includes a nearly month-long delay in the mandate implementation. Previously, all federal workers and contractors must have either been fully vaccinated or granted some form of extension or accommodation by December 8, 2022. Fully vaccinated means two weeks following the final dose, meaning the actual deadline was early November for employees to begin the two-shot cycle of Pfizer or Moderna.

The new deadline also comes with updated recommendations from OSHA.

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Five (More) Things You Should Know: Common Vaccine Mandate Misconceptions

The vaccine mandate remains the talk of the governing contracting community. Even as a new lawsuit seeks to block the mandate, many contractors are working feverishly in an effort to comply.

Last week, I addressed responses to five common misconceptions I am hearing about the vaccine mandate. But I am seeing many more misconceptions, and updated guidance from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force helps address some of them. So let’s take a look at five more common misconceptions about the contractor vaccine mandate.

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Event: Contractor Vaccine Mandate Webinar, Hosted by Govology

Here at Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC, we’ve had a lot of contractors ask, “are you going to give a webinar on the contractor vaccine mandate?” I am pleased to say that the answer is yes.

On November 17, please join me and Shane McCall for a special Govology webinar on the vaccine mandate. We will cover which contractors and subcontractors must comply, which employees are covered, when employees must be vaccinated, how employers should confirm employee vaccination, and much more, including the latest guidance from the Safer Federal Workplace Task Force.

It’s easy to register: just click here. See you on November 17!

Data Rights and the Government Contractor: An Introduction and Unlimited Data Rights

Ask any attorney, and there’s a good chance they’d agree with this statement: Intellectual property is a particularly complex area of law. Dealing with property rights in things that don’t physically exist, unsurprisingly, can result in a lot of confusion. Couple this with the labyrinthine regulations and rules concerning government contracts and procurements, and even the most experienced contractor can be left confused with a pounding headache.

To help clear up these murky waters, this post will be the first in a series of posts reviewing some of the basics of intellectual property rules in government contracts. We will start by going over data rights, as perhaps no subject in this field is more difficult than dealing with data rights. While I think we’re getting to the point in history where we can stop referring to computers and the internet as a novel technology (The internet as we know it is over thirty years old!), the law around data rights is still relatively new and rough around the edges. In this post, we will review the general concept and the rules regarding “unlimited rights” in data.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: October 25-29, 2021

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween! As always, there was a lot of news in the federal government contracting world this week including an announcement from the SBA concerning a new community navigator pilot program which will provide $100 million in funding to 51 organizations to help support local community entrepreneurs. Also, the GSA announced it will be making revisions to its commercial platform initiative. You can read more about these and other federal government contracting related topics in the articles below.

Have a great weekend!

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