Sometimes, one tiny word can make all the difference. I never truly realized the difference that one word could make until I started law school and the important distinction between “shall” and “may” was engrained into my brain. And this concept can certainly apply to the federal contracting world. In government contracting, a single word can establish the scope of a solicitation requirement, shape how an agency evaluates proposals, and ultimately determine which contractor gets the contract. The word “all” is a good example, and a recent GAO decision illustrates just how much weight that one three-letter word can carry. Specifically, GAO held that the solicitation requirements applied to all submitted carrier commitment letters, not just those that were minimally required.
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It Wasn’t a Catch-22: GAO Finds the File Naming Conventions Were Clearly Stated in the Solicitation
A catch-22 is an impossible, no-win situation where you are caught between two conflicting requirements, and complying with one makes it impossible to comply with the other. When a bid protest turns on whether an agency’s instructions were clear or whether a contractor was put in a catch-22, the solicitation is often the best place to look for the answer. However, a recent GAO decision illustrates that not every difficult or unfavorable outcome constitutes a catch-22, and that sometimes the answer to a contractor’s problems is right in front of them.
Continue reading“I Could Have Competed” Won’t Cut It: COFC Requires Showing Contractor Could Perform Work if it Wants to Protest Solicitation Terms
You have your eye on a solicitation. You know the work, you know the customer, and you are certain that you would be a front-runner for the award. Then, you learn that the agency is limiting competition for the procurement, and you can no longer compete for the contract. Immediately, you think that the agency must have made a mistake. After all, you were fully prepared to submit a proposal and perform the work. But is believing you could have competed for the contract and won the award enough to satisfy the requirements for filing a bid protest? A recent COFC decision answers this question.
Continue readingGAO Sustains Protest Due to Agency’s Inadequate Documentation and Unequal Evaluation of Offerors
As regular SmallGovCon readers surely know, federal agencies have a great deal of discretion when procuring products and services. Protesters are often facing an uphill battle in attempting to demonstrate an agency abused that discretion in making an award. This is because typically, so long as the agency properly documents its decision making process, sticks to the solicitation terms, and there is documentation in the record that reasonably supports the agency’s decision, GAO will rule in the agency’s favor. Nevertheless, there are occasions when the agency will apply evaluation criteria unevenly, or base its decision on facts or considerations that are not allowed under the Solicitation. This is precisely what happened in a recent GAO protest which resulted in a win for the protester, and serves as a great reminder for contractors as to what situations may result in a successful bid protest.
Continue readingGAO Recommends Practicing Mindfulness When Solicitation Terms Cover Multiple Evaluation Factors
Even if we don’t want to admit it, we all simply click “accept” on all those different terms and conditions for software, despite not actually reading the actual terms. GAO in a recent decision reminded agencies and contractors to not let that habit happen when you read the terms of a procurement. In that recent GAO decision, there was a long history of protests, which resulted in an amendment to the solicitation. At first glance, the amendment and proposal revision restrictions tied to it may have made sense, but upon protest, GAO found the limitations on proposal revisions were improper, due to the amendment impacting more than the one factor which was open for revisions.
Continue readingWebinar Announcement: Protests in Federal Contracting: What Contractors Need to Know
Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC partner Nicole Pottroff will be joining the GovCon Roundup Crew to discuss bid protests tomorrow at March 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Be sure to join them to learn when a bid protest might be a strategic choice for federal contractors to make, and how to respond to bid protests.
Do you know your rights when the government gets procurement wrong? Join Nicole Pottroff, Carroll Bernard, and Steven Koprince on the next GovCon Roundup Live for a 90-minute deep dive into bid protests — one of the most powerful (and misunderstood) tools in federal contracting.
Continue readingGAO: No Notice of New Opportunity Needed for Incumbents
Often Incumbents on a contract feel that the agency owes them some notice on when a new procurement for the work they are performing is published. While this may happen in practice, it is yet another occurrence in Federal contracting that, while common, is not a requirement. GAO recently examined whether an incumbent in frequent contact with and in current performance with an agency should have been given direct notice that the work it had been performing was being re-solicited. Plainly put, GAO held that no special individualized notice was required to be sent to the incumbent, that there was to be a solicitation posted.
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