Insights

Most protests involve competitive procurements and the many rules governing how agencies are to conduct such procurements. In certain circumstances, agencies are permitted to bypass some of these rules and limit competition. But, as GAO noted in a recently issued sustain decision, the authority to use noncompetitive procedures does not provide the agency carte blanche.

On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, aimed at ensuring U.S. foreign assistance is “fully aligned” with the administration’s foreign policy goals. The Order called for an immediate 90-day pause on all foreign development assistance, applicable to all assistance funding for foreign countries, NGOs, international organizations, and federal contractors.

On December 23, 2024, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 (FY 2025 NDAA) (P.L. 118-159) was signed into law.  The final FY 2025 NDAA takes a narrower approach to acquisition policy and supply chain changes than watchers expected, but it still makes some consequential changes for contractors.  Read on as Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts group discusses the FY 2025 NDAA’s new supply chain restrictions and requirements, changes to bid protest jurisdiction, cybersecurity requirements, and more.

On November 14, 2024, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its Annual Report on Bid Protests for Fiscal Year 2024, containing the full statistics shown below:

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, signed into law on December 22, 2023, makes numerous changes to acquisition policy. Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts Group discusses the most consequential changes for government contractors here. These include changes that impose a new conflict of interest regime for government contractors with a connection to China, impose new restrictions and requirements, require government reporting to Congress on acquisition authorities and programs, and alter other processes and procedures to which government contractors are subject. The FY 2024 NDAA also includes the Federal Data Center Enhancement Act, the American Security Drone Act, and the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2024.

When faced with a dissatisfying debriefing, a contractor may choose to respond to the agency to question or even rebut its evaluation.  However, the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision in NikSoft Systems Corporation (NikSoft) serves as an important reminder that those communications can be interpreted as agency-level protests, with potential to render subsequent GAO protests untimely. 

In a polarized political environment, one area of bipartisan agreement in recent years has been renewed interest in leveraging government purchasing power to promote the domestic manufacturing base by expanding and strengthening federal “Buy America” requirements.  For direct federal procurements subject to the Buy American Act (BAA), this has resulted in revised rules increasing the amount of U.S. content required to qualify a product as domestic, as well as heightened scrutiny of when waivers may be issued exempting a procurement in whole or in part from those requirements (covered here and here).    

Good news for potential protesters at the Court of Federal Claims (CFC).  On May 10, 2023, in CACI, Inc.-Federal v. United States, No. 2022-1488, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a sweeping decision holding questions of protester standing and prejudice are merits issues that do not implicate the CFC’s jurisdiction.  In so doing, the Federal Circuit declared decades of prior jurisprudence holding the opposite “no longer good law.” (For a more in-depth discussion of CACI, you can listen to Crowell’s latest All Things Protest podcast.)

Last week, on March 9, 2023, in Percipient.ai, Inc. v. United States, the Court of Federal Claims held that Percipient.ai, Inc. (“Percipient”) had standing to protest a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (“NGA”) procurement called “SAFFIRE” intended to improve the agency’s production, storage, and integration of geospatial intelligence data.  Percipient’s complaint, filed in January of this year, argued that SAFFIRE violates the statutory mandate at 10 U.S.C. § 3453 to procure commercial items “to the maximum extent practicable.”  The Court’s conclusion that Percipient had standing to protest is notable because (1) NGA issued the SAFFIRE solicitation in January 2020 (over three years ago); (2) NGA awarded the SAFFIRE contract to CACI, Inc.—Federal (“CACI”) in January 2021 (over two years ago); and (3) Percipient never submitted a proposal in response to the solicitation. 

On January 23, 2023, in AttainX, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained the protest of an award to an 8(a) joint venture based on, among other reasons, a finding that the agency’s evaluation of the joint venture’s experience was inconsistent with the Small Business Administration (SBA) regulations concerning joint ventures (JVs), citing 13 C.F.R. § 125.8(e) and 13 C.F.R. § 124.513(f).

On December 27, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act (S.3905) to strengthen the current rules relating to identification and mitigation of organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) in federal acquisition. The Act focuses on updating the current FAR provision, Subpart 9.5, to provide clear definitions, examples, and guidance on potential OCIs and to consider expanding the Subpart to cover certain commercial and foreign relationships.

On November 1, 2022, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its Annual Report on Bid Protests for Fiscal Year 2022.  While the number of protests GAO received dropped by 12% for the second year in a row, the overall protest “Effectiveness Rate”—meaning the percentage of cases in which the protester received some form of relief, such as voluntary corrective action by the agency or a GAO sustain—increased to 51%, tying Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 for the highest rate in the past five years.  

Challenging an agency’s failure to award a “strength” for a proposal feature can prove to be an exercise in futility.  GAO frequently characterizes this oft-rejected argument as mere disagreement and defers to the agency’s conclusions.  But, following GAO’s decision in Tech Marine Business, Inc., B-420872, Oct. 14, 2022, the tide may be turning.  Agencies are now required to demonstrate that their decision not to award strength credit was reasonable and consistent with the stated evaluation criteria.

Protesters looking to challenge U.S. Government awards of “Other Transaction Agreements” (“OTAs”) face forum challenges—the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”), and federal district courts have all dismissed OTA protests for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, with GAO and the COFC concluding that OTAs are not procurement contracts.  But last week, in Hydraulics International, Inc. v. United States, the COFC held it could exercise jurisdiction over a challenge to an OTA award made in connection with a potential future procurement.

Last week, the Court of Federal Claims issued a decision highlighting – and further widening – the gap between the limited agency record typically available to protesters at the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) and the much more fulsome record available at the Court.  In Trace Systems Inc. v. U.S., the Court signaled its increasing willingness to scrutinize the adequacy of the record produced, rather than simply accept Government representations of completeness.

After a recent Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”) decision limited the circumstances under which a departure of key personnel may doom an offeror’s proposal, an even more recent GAO decision might have swung the pendulum right back. In Sehlke Consulting, LLC, GAO sustained a protest because the agency failed to penalize the awardee when a proposed key person employed under the incumbent contract provided notice that he planned to resign. Even though the key person was still employed on the date of award, GAO held that the agency’s failure to consider his “prospective unavailability” for the follow-on contract undermined the contract award.

Last week, in SEKRI, Inc. v. U.S., No. 21-1936 (Fed. Cir. May 13, 2022), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit appeared to chip away at the scope of the Blue & Gold waiver rule. The Court held that SEKRI, Inc. (“SEKRI”)—which neither submitted a proposal nor filed a protest prior to the relevant proposal submission deadline—had standing to challenge the terms of a solicitation, and was not untimely in doing so, because its representative had exchanged emails with the agency regarding the terms of the underlying solicitation. While the Federal Circuit cabined its holding to the specific facts at issue, the ruling raises questions about whether the Blue & Gold waiver rule is susceptible to further limitation under a similar rationale.

As Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues, countries around the world are taking action.  Relevant to U.S. Government contractors, on April 22, the Defense Logistics Agency (“DLA”) issued a Request for Information (“RFI”) seeking information on companies’ abilities to deliver military and commercial assistance to Ukraine.  The RFI states that “the Biden Administration is working around the clock to fulfill Ukraine’s priority security assistance requests,” and explains that “Russia’s unprovoked invasion has highlighted the importance of dialogue between industry and commercial partners and the Department of Defense.”  To that end, the RFI seeks to fulfill three strategic objectives:

A difficult decision facing an offeror eliminated from a competition prior to award is when to be debriefed.  FAR 15.505 instructs that an offeror eliminated from a competition must request a debriefing within three days of the notification of their elimination, but may choose to defer the actual debriefing until after an award is made.  There is some facial appeal to that delay—more information may be available after the agency’s award decision.  But GAO’s recent decision in Battelle Memorial Institute, B-420403, B-420403.2, B-420403.3, Mar. 10, 2022, highlights the risk of that delay: a protest being dismissed as filed too late.