Tag Archives: Federal government contracting

Webinar Announcement: Regulatory Updates in Government Contracting, Nov. 18, 2025

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In this webinar, hosted by the El Paso Texas APEX Accelerators, government contracting attorneys and authors Shane McCall and John Holtz will discuss the most important legal developments for federal contractors in 2025. Specifically, they will discuss the many FAR changes, important new small business rules and processing for various SBA certifications, recent cases pertinent to federal contractors, and more. This presentation will help federal contractors stay up to date on current federal regulatory and legal changes. We hope you will join us!

Please register: Here

Overview of Recent Updates to Cybersecurity Requirements Under the CMMC Program (Part 1)

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On September 10, 2025, the Department of Defense (As all the documents we address use the Department of Defense naming, we will go by that to prevent confusion.) (DoD) implemented the acquisition rules for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program at DFARS subpart 204.75. This follows the federal government’s institution of the CMMC program last year (We explored this a bit with a review of the proposed rules some time before that and noted that initial rules have been in place since 2020.) These rules are present at 32 C.F.R. Part 170. Despite these rules having now been in place for a little while, the scope and complexity of the CMMC program can nonetheless be daunting for contractors to deal with. In this first in a series of posts, we will explore the basics of the CMMC program and what it means for you.

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GovCon KC 2025 Conference Announcement: October 22, hosted by Missouri APEX Accelerators

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The GovCon Kansas City 2025 event is to foster connections and advancing knowledge in the government contracting community and business basics. This event brings together a wide array of industry leaders, government officials, and business professionals for a unique opportunity to network, share insights, and explore the latest developments in the field. This event is intended for government agencies, prime contractors and major firms to meet with small businesses to explore potential partnerships for future contract opportunities.

Please say hello and plan to attend the presentation on the Top 21 Legal Mistakes in Federal Government Contracting by our very own Nicole Pottroff. Nicole will be speaking at 1:00pm CDT.

For more information and registration use the link here.

FAR Overhaul Webinar: What to Expect from FAR 2.0 on October 21, hosted by GT (Georgia Tech) APEX Accelerators

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Please join me, Shane McCall, on October 21 at 12:00pm EDT as I discuss the important new developments for the revolutionary FAR overhaul. GSA has described the FAR overhaul as taking things down to the studs and that it will function like a wobbly bicycle at the start. This presentation will discuss the executive order outlining the FAR overhaul and the goal to “remove most non-statutory rules.” It will work through the various updates, the line out, and the change summary. 

Discussion Topics include: 

  • FAR Part 19 small business changes.
  • What is staying the same? 
  • What is changing? 
  • What is the base FAR versus the contractor supplements?

Please register here. (Registration deadline October 20, 2025, 8:00am EDT.)

Finalized Increases to Micro-Purchase, Simplified Acquisition, and Other Thresholds

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Last year, we noted that the FAR Council (DoD, GSA, and NASA) issued a proposed rule to adjust the statutory acquisition thresholds for inflation. Under 41 U.S.C. § 1908, the federal government must adjust these thresholds every five years to account for inflation. Effective October 1, 2025, the updated thresholds have gone into effect. In this post, we’ll look at the new thresholds.

The finalized rule, issued on August 27, 2025, mostly matches the proposed rule from 2024, although there are some differences.

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Conference Announcement: ICBS Show, Oklahoma City, October 14-16, 2025

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The Indian Country Business Summit (ICBS) is hosting its annual ICBSSHOW in Oklahoma City this month. And our very own Gregory Weber will be attending and presenting on federal contracting legal updates. This presentation will be a great way for contractors to stay on top of all the recent updates in federal contracting. So, please stop by our table to say hello or if any questions come up after the presentation.

The ICBSSHOW offers informational sessions featuring experts in government procurement, connection and networking opportunities, and a day of matchmaking to introduce you and your business to government decision makers. It also provides invaluable access to government agency buyers and policy leaders, prime contractors, and tribal procurement representatives looking to expand their vendor pools.

For additional event details and registration use this link. Hope to see you there!

A Refresher on How the Small Business Rule of Two Generally Works

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We have talked a good deal about the Small Business Rule of Two (not to be confused with the separate VA rule of two for veteran-owned businesses) over the years. The (very) general gist of the rule is this: If the procurement is above the simplified acquisition threshold, the agency must set it aside for small businesses if two or more small businesses can perform the work at fair prices. If the agency has a reasonable expectation that two or more SDVOSB/VOSBs, EDWOSBs/WOSBs, 8(a) participants, or HUBZone participants can perform work under a procurement, the agency must consider setting aside the procurement for that particular category (i.e., if it believes two or more 8(a) participants can perform the work, it can set aside the procurement for 8(a) participants). However, it appears there remains a good deal of confusion about what the Rule of Two requires, as opposed to what it simply permits. In a recent GAO protest, a contractor learned this the hard way, and today, we’ll explore that decision.

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