Insights

On March 20, 2025, the White House issued Executive Order (“EO”), “Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement,” to consolidate domestic civilian contracting for “common goods and services” within one agency—the General Services Administration (“GSA”). The EO defines “common goods and services” as those described in the Category Management system first developed as part of a previous effort, dating back to 2014, to coordinate spending across the government.

On February 26, 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order (“EO”), “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Cost Efficiency Initiative,” to transform federal spending on “covered” contracts, grants, and loans. The EO defines “[c]overed contracts and grants” as “discretionary spending through Federal contracts, grants, loans, and related instruments, but excludes direct assistance to individuals; expenditures related to immigration enforcement, law enforcement, the military, public safety, and the intelligence community; and other critical, acute, or emergency spending, as determined by the relevant Agency Head.”

In Bitmanagement Software GMBH v. United States, Case No. 23-1506 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 7, 2025), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) denied the appeal of Bitmanagement Software Gmbh (Bitmanagement) challenging the Court of Federal Claims’ (COFC) $154,400 damages award, and denying its demand for $85 million in damages resulting from the Navy’s infringement of Bitmanagement’s software copyright.  The Federal Circuit affirmed the COFC’s (1) use of a hypothetical negotiation approach to compute damages; and (2) decision to award damages using a “per use” rather than a “per copy” approach.