Blog
Yesterday, the Department of Defense ("DoD") announced Version 2.0 of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification ("CMMC") Program. Notably, CMMC 2.0 maintains the original CMMC 1.X Program's goal of safeguarding sensitive information, while:
- Simplifying the CMMC standard and providing additional clarity on cybersecurity regulatory, policy, and contracting requirements;
- Focusing the most advanced cybersecurity standards and third-party assessment requirements on companies supporting the highest priority programs; and
- Increasing Department oversight of ...
This Client Alert outlines the critical points for government contractors to know about the Biden Administration’s executive order, regulations, and guidance addressing COVID-19 prevention measures in the workplace.
On September 9, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors (“EO”), to promote the economy and efficiency in federal procurement by ensuring that certain federal prime contractors and subcontractors provide adequate COVID-19 safeguards to their workers performing on or in ...
In August, the Government Accountability Office ("GAO") provided a boost for small business joint ventures ("JV") that are pursuing defense contracts in holding that the plain language of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA") prohibits the Department of Defense ("DoD") "from issuing solicitations that require a joint venture, rather than the members of the joint venture, hold the required facility clearance."
The decision is welcome news for small business JVs where each member holds the required facility security clearance ("FCL"), as the decision may result ...
On Friday, September 24, 2021, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force ("Task Force") published its Guidance for Federal Contractors and Subcontractors ("Guidance"). This Guidance follows President Biden's Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors ("EO") and provides definitions, three sections of contractor guidance, and a host of Questions and Answers ("Q&A") to assist contractors in implementing the President's vaccine mandate and workplace safety measures.
Briefly, the Guidance is broad and the vaccine mandate ...
Last week, the Federal Acquisition Regulation ("FAR") Council published a final rule amending the FAR to implement a portion of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 ("2017 NDAA"), which requires examples of failure to make good faith efforts to comply with a small business subcontracting plan.
The final rule also provides that "failure to make a good faith effort to comply with the plan may result in the assessment of liquidated damages per FAR 52.219-16, Liquidated Damages—Subcontracting Plan," and requires that "all indirect costs, with certain ...
A recent Government Accountability Office ("GAO") bid protest decision provides a reminder of when an agency may conduct a price realism analysis in fixed-price contracts. So, the next time you want to challenge a competitor's low price, remember that agencies are neither required nor permitted to conduct a price realism analysis in a fixed-price procurement unless the solicitation calls for it either expressly or impliedly.
The protest of Inbound, LLC, B-419853.5, July 30, 2021, 2021 CPD ¶ ___ involved the protester's challenge to the establishment of multiple blanket purchase ...
Most government contracts include a clause giving the government the right to terminate the contract, or any part thereof, for its sole convenience “when it is in the best interests of the government.” FAR Parts 49, 12, 13, and 31 establish the regulatory requirements for termination and settlement of government contracts. The mechanics are specific. Upon receipt of the notice of termination, the prime contractor should immediately stop all work and terminate all subcontracts related to the terminated portion of the prime contract. Inventory disposal schedules must be ...
OTA Overview
The Department of Defense can issue Other Transaction Agreements (“OTA”) for research, prototypes, and production. 10 U.S.C. § 2371b. Research OTAs are available for basic, applied, and advanced research projects. The DoD may also acquire prototypes using OTAs. Production OTAs are only permitted where the government has previously acquired a prototype under an earlier OTA. Additionally, the solicitation for the original prototype must have notified offerors that the government reserved the right to issue a follow-on Production OTA.
OTAs at the GAO
In a ...
Prime contractors are responsible for incorporating the appropriate provisions of their prime contracts into the agreements with their subcontractor. Determining which clauses are applicable to subcontractors and how best to monitor subcontractor compliance needs to be a priority. The first step is identifying contract clauses that are required to be incorporated into the contractor’s subcontracts. These “mandatory flow-downs” are FAR, DFARS, and other contract clauses that, by their own terms, are required to be incorporated into subcontracts. Clauses that must ...
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) just announced that the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recovered a record $304 million in wages owed to workers in the Fiscal Year 2018 (read more here). This includes violations of labor laws unique to federal contractors, such as the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA). On September 13, 2018, the DOL found that a California-based contractor and five of its subcontractors had violated the SCA. WHD determined the contractor owed over $3.5 million to 1,416 workers (both their own and subcontractor personnel) for failing to pay federal ...