1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |DOE Class Deviation Softens FAR Requirement for Continuous SAM Registration

DOE Class Deviation Softens FAR Requirement for Continuous SAM Registration

Client Alert | 1 min read | 09.19.23

On September 6, 2023, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Class Deviation removing the FAR 52.204-7 requirement that a contractor maintain its System for Award Management (SAM) registration for the entire time from proposal submission until contract award, without any lapse.  As background, FAR 52.204-7 has since 2018 provided that “[a]n Offeror is required to be registered in SAM when submitting an offer or quotation and shall continue to be registered until time of award . . . .”  As we discussed here, the Court of Federal Claims has strictly enforced this language, holding that it unambiguously requires a contractor to maintain its SAM registration throughout the entire proposal and evaluation process, and that an agency lacks the authority to waive that requirement.

The DOE Class Deviation, effective immediately for all DOE procurements, makes the flowing changes:

    • Removes the “shall continue to be registered until time of award” language; and
    • Adds the following language: “A failure to register in SAM or a lapse in SAMs [sic] registration may be treated by the Contracting Officer as a correctable matter of responsibility.”

While this class deviation applies only to DOE procurements, companies should watch for whether other federal agencies follow suit and issue similar class deviations.  Companies also should begin proactively updating existing registrations well in advance of expiration.  Even though the SAM initial registration and update processes have improved over the past year since the original change to the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) assignment and accompanying entity validation steps, potential delays in the entity validation and Defense Logistics Agency CAGE Code processing steps still caution early registrations and early updates to ensure registration timeliness and continuity.

Contacts

Insights

Client Alert | 3 min read | 06.12.26

DOJ Guidance Backs Away From Disparate Impact Liability

On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”...

View All Insights