Tag Archives: Federal government contracting

Event Announcement: Procurement & Contracting Symposium hosted by Texas El Paso APEX Accelerators, July 25, 2023

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I’m very excited to be speaking at the Procurement & Contracting Symposium held at EPCC Administrative Services Center (ASC) in El Paso, Texas on July 25.  The wonderful Pablo Armendariz is putting this one together. I’ll be providing a comprehensive update on the most important government contracting legal changes.

It’s going to be a great opportunity for Federal, state, and local government agencies, buyers, prime and subcontractors, suppliers, providers, and the regional business community to meet and participate in informative training sessions as well as receive government contracting guidance, updates, and upcoming forecasts. I hope to see you there! Here is the event link, for additional information.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 19-23, 2023

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Happy Friday and happy Summer Solstice! It’s officially summer and the temperatures here in Lawrence, Kansas sure feel like it. We have been in the 90’s this week and we are certainly grateful for air conditioning (and maybe even looking forward to winter). We hope our readers have some fun summer vacation plans and find time to rest and relax a bit this weekend. Wear your sunscreen and stay hydrated!

In federal government news this week, budget talks and the draft NDAA are being worked on, while agencies focus on cybercrime and customer experience, among other things.

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 12-16, 2023

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Happy Friday! Monday is our newest federal holiday, Junteenth. Courtesy of History.com, Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.

I hope you will enjoy the activities in your community. In our town of Lawrence, Kansas, there is a parade, a free concert and lots of educational events this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it! GSA published a great press release on Junteenth, that we have included below. Lots of activity in the Federal government world this week. We have included some articles that we think are of interest. Have a great weekend!

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SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 5-9, 2023

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Happy Friday, Readers! As temperatures climb in this now official Kansas summer, so does federal government spending. But with more spending, comes more responsibility. A lot has happened this week! The FAR council proposed to ban TikTok for contractors. NASA is planning some extensive tech development, with the help of small businesses. And NOAA issued a massive $8 billion RFP for a scientific and professional services acquisition. Enjoy the articles below and your weekend!

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Event: Ethics in Federal Government Contracting Webinar hosted by Govology, June 15, 1:00pm EDT

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Uncle Sam only wants to do business with ethical contractors — and not all of the government’s ethics rules are intuitive. In this webinar, government contracts attorney, Nicole Pottroff, explains the ins and outs of the key ethics rules contractors should know, including organizational conflicts of interest, contingent fees, collusion, gratuities, the False Claims Act, and the Procurement Integrity Act. The presentation concludes with an in-depth look at what a compliant Ethics Plan and Internal Compliance Program should include. We hope you will join us. Registration link here.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 29- June 2, 2023

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Happy Friday! We hope you had a great week and can take time to enjoy your weekend. We’ve been receiving a lot of rain here in the Midwest lately. The rain gauge was completely full and topped out at 4 1/2″ in a 12 hour span of time, this past week. Everything outside is looking beautiful and I’m guessing there will be a lot of lawn mowing going on this weekend.

We’ve included several articles that hopefully provide some good information concerning federal government contracting this week. Enjoy your weekend!

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COFC Part II: Evaluation of Mentor-Protégé Joint Ventures

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A couple of weeks ago, I explored the Court of Federal Claims case of SH Synergy, LLC v. United States. In that blog, linked below, I looked at the first question raised in the protest that centered on the question of whether a mentor with two approved mentor protégé joint ventures with two different protégés under the SBA’s Mentor-Protégé Program is restricted from placing competing offers for a solicitation, in this case GSA’s Polaris solicitation. The answer to that was yes, they are restricted pursuant to 13 C.F.R. § 125.9. Because this decision was chocked full of useful information, and as promised, I’m back to look at the second issue tackled in this mammoth COFC opinion: did the solicitation’s terms, which required mentor-protégé joint ventures, woman-owned small business joint ventures, and service-disabled veteran owned small business joint ventures to be evaluated in the same manner as offerors, generally, violate procurement regulations? As you will see, the answer to that question is also yes, and it appears that this decision has already had an impact on other procurements.

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