GAO’s jurisdiction to hear protests of certain civilian task and delivery orders has been restored.

On December 15, 2016, the President signed the 2016 GAO Civilian Task and Delivery Order Protest Authority Act (the “ 2016 Act”) into law.  The 2016 Act restores GAO’s recently-expired jurisdiction to hear protests of civilian task and delivery orders valued in excess of $10 million.

As we recently blogged about here at SmallGovCon, the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act also restores GAO’s jurisdiction over task and delivery orders. But even while the 2017 NDAA awaits the President’s signature (or potential veto), Congress and the President have enacted separate legislation to permit GAO to resume hearing bid protests of civilian task and delivery orders.

This Act makes permanent the GAO’s authority to hear protests on civilian task or delivery contracts valued in excess of $10 million. It does so by deleting the sunset provision relating to the authorized protest of a task or delivery order under 41 U.S.C. § 4106(f).

While the 2016 Act permanently restores GAO’s jurisdiction over protests involving civilian task and delivery orders valued above $10 million, as noted in a prior blog, the 2017 NDAA will increase the threshold for challenging DoD task and delivery orders to $25 million. For now, however, DoD orders meeting the $10 million threshold, including those issued under civilian contract vehicles, are once again subject to GAO oversight.

The enactment of the 2016 Act reinforces the importance of bid protests in the procurement process, as evidenced by the fact that 46% of protests in Fiscal Year 2016 resulted in relief for the protester (either a “sustain” decision or voluntary agency corrective action). Congress made the right call in restoring GAO’s jurisdiction, and did so even faster than the 2017 NDAA would have allowed.