Tag Archives: Federal government contracting

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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TAA Can Apply to Small Business Set-Aside: COC Clarifies Trade Agreements Act and Buy American Act Applicability

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The Trade Agreements Act (TAA) and Buy American Act (BAA) are among the most complex regulatory systems in federal contracting. There’s been a lot of confusion from both contractors and agencies on when they apply to a procurement and how. We have written on the BAA and TAA in the past. Recently, the Court of Federal Claims issued a decision discussing how the two laws interact, and showed that how they apply depends significantly on the circumstances of the procurement, providing some clarification on a past GAO decision we wrote on as well (which held that the TAA is inapplicable to small business set-asides). We will explore that here. 

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Webinar! SBA & DoD Mentor-Protégé Program, June 24, 2025, 10:00-11:30am MDT, hosted by Texas El Paso APEX Accelerators

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Touted as a “game-changer” when it was first introduced in 2016, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s All Small Mentor-Protégé Program isn’t new anymore. Known now as simply the “SBA Mentor-Protégé Program,” it is still extremely useful for large and small contractors alike.

Government contracts attorneys John Holtz and Stephanie Ellis of Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC will explain the ins and outs of the SBA Mentor-Protégé Program, covering the program’s eligibility requirements, its potential benefits (including the ability to form special mentor-protégé joint ventures), the application process, and common misconceptions and pitfalls. Additionally,they will provide an introduction to the even older DoD Mentor-Protégé Program, which set the stage for the SBA’s program, and compare the two programs.

Register here.