SmallGovCon Week in Review: December 6-10, 2021

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Shane McCall

Good day, Readers! The holidays are quickly approaching and everything is looking festive and bright here in Lawrence, Kansas. The annual tradition of Santa being recued from the roof of one of our local department stores occurred and you will be happy to know that he is safe to circle the globe once again this Christmas. You can see photos of this fun, annual tradition here. It’s always quite a spectacle!

As always, there was a lot happening in the world of federal government contracting this week. The biggest news being that a federal judge has temporarily halted the vaccine mandate for federal government contractors. You can read more about this latest development and some interesting statistics that were issued on federal government contracting, along with other announcements in the articles below, as well as our blog post.

Have a great weekend!

Event: 8(a) Joint Ventures Webinar, Hosted by El Paso SBA

Posted on December 10, 2021 by Shane McCall

Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC will be presenting a webinar hosted by the El Paso SBA that covers an important topic in federal government contracting – 8(a) Joint Ventures.

In this webinar, government contracts attorneys Shane McCall and John Holtz cover the basics of joint ventures, the specifics of 8(a) joint ventures (including SBA requirements), and how the mentor-protégé program can benefit a joint venture arrangement.

If you’d like to join us for the webinar, mark the date of December 16 on your calendar and here is the link for the event.

GAO Finds CIO-SP4 Unduly Restrictive; Recommends Amendment

Posted on December 9, 2021 by John Holtz

For practically the entire summer of 2021, we observed (and commented on) NIH’s numerous amendments to its long-awaited CIO-SP4 solicitation after it was finally issued in May 2021. By the time the deadline for proposals finally came, it had been amended eleven (!) times. Even with all those amendments, however, it appears that at least one offeror still had serious concerns about the final version. As it turns out, at least some of their concerns were warranted, per GAO, and has recommended the agency to amend the solicitation or revise its evaluation criteria.

Breaking: Judge Imposes Nationwide Injunction on Vaccine Mandate

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Shane McCall

A federal judge in Georgia has recently imposed a nationwide injunction on the federal contractor vaccine mandate. This will likely be appealed, but for now, here are the key points from the decision.

FAR Will Clarify Commercial Item Definition Into Services and Products

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Shane McCall

There will be a new definition for commercial items under the FAR, via a final rule effective December 6, 2021. The rule divides the definition into two separate categories: “commercial service” and “commercial product.” Below, we’ll summarize these changes to an important definition in federal contracting.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: November 29 – December 3, 2021

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Shane McCall

Happy December, All! Can you believe we are almost to the end of 2021? It seems this year has flown by! Hope everyone is recovering nicely from Thanksgiving.

There was a lot of news this week about the vaccine mandate being temporarily halted in several states with the outcome yet to be decided. We have included a few articles addressing the current status of the mandate below.

Also, the Whitehouse and SBA released an announcement concerning increased funding for small disadvantaged business with the goal of increasing the share of contracts by 50% by 2025, that is well worth noting.

We hope you enjoy the articles we have included. Have a great weekend!

Agencies May Rely on Offerors’ Buy American Act Certifications Unless “Reason to Believe” Non-Compliance

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Nicole Pottroff

When an offeror submits a certification that its products qualify as domestic for purposes of the Buy American Act, an agency ordinarily may rely on that certification without further investigation, unless the agency has reason to believe that the products will not be compliant.

In a recent bid protest decision, the GAO held that an agency acted properly by relying on the offeror’s certification because the protester’s “unsupported allegations” were insufficient to trigger a requirement for further investigation.