Government Contracts Insights

Insights and analysis from practitioners.

• Supreme Court to Consider the False Claims Act’s Intent Standard

  On Friday, January 13, the Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the False Claims Act (“FCA”) covers compliance lapses tied to regulatory interpretations that are incorrect but “objectively reasonable.” The Supreme Court granted petitions for writs of certiorari in two cases,

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Jan 17, 2023

• A Bluer Shade of Blue: All “outstandings” Are Not Created Equal

  A common mistake in competitive procurements is a mechanical fixation on the adjectival ratings, color ratings, or numerical “scores” a procuring agency assigns a proposal under a particular evaluation factor. In best value tradeoff acquisitions, one often hears (from both contra

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Jan 16, 2023

• December 2022 Bid Protest Roundup: Misrepresentations of Key Personnel, Mandatory-Source Saga Continued

  This month’s Bid Protest Roundup considers two recent protests: (1) an important decision by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) concerning the awardee’s misrepresentation of the availability View the full article

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Jan 13, 2023

• Fifth Circuit Affirms Preliminary Injunction of Contractor Vaccine Mandate

  A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on December 19, 2022, upheld a preliminary injunction of Executive Order 14042, halting the Biden administration’s effort to impose on federal contractors a variety of COVID-19 safety protocols. View the full arti

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Dec 21, 2022

• November 2022 Bid Protest Roundup: Best-Value Tradeoffs, Solicitations

  Sometimes a comparison of cases best illustrates the law. This month we analyze a double pair of recent GAO decisions. First, in CharDonnay and Triple Canopy, we compare decisions dissecting the merits of View the full article

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Dec 8, 2022

• THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR: Unrecognized and Overt Pressure on Contractors' Data and Software Rights: Risks Posed by H Clauses, Innocuous Acronyms (IPT, IDE, SaaS, DAL), and The Cloud

  What do you really know about the data and software rights your engineers may well be giving up every day through Integrated Data Environments, Integrated Products Teams, the Cloud and such? Probably not enough, suggests Jay DeVecchio in an article for The Government Contractor d

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Dec 7, 2022

• White House Announces Federal Supplier Climate Risks and Resilience Rule

  The Biden Administration unveiled details regarding a forthcoming proposed Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) rule on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission disclosures for major federal suppliers on November 10, 2022. View the full article

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Nov 11, 2022

• October 2022 Bid Protest Roundup: 'Late-Is-Late' Rule, Compensation Plans

  October 2022 Bid Protest Roundup: 'Late-Is-Late' Rule, Compensation Plans View the full article

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Nov 9, 2022

• Deciphering the GAO’s Bid Protest Statistics for FY 2022

  Each year around this time, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) publishes its annual report to Congress on bid protests. Earlier this week, the GAO published the report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. The following are the updated statistics at a glance, in the context of

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Nov 7, 2022

• U.S. Government Launches Billion-Dollar Biomedical Agency

  As part of the Biden Administration’s ongoing efforts to spur innovation and research, it has championed the creation of a new sub-agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). View the full article

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Oct 28, 2022

• EO 14042: OMB Guidance Keeps Enforcement on Hold “At This Time”

  On October 19, 2022, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published its first set of interim guidance for agencies regarding the Federal Government’s enforcement of Executive Order 14042 (“EO 14042”). View the full article

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Oct 26, 2022

• September 2022 Bid Protest Roundup: Challenges to Corrective Action; Discarded Proposals, and Best Value Determinations

  This month’s Bid Protest Roundup covers three recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) decisions: a challenge to an agency’s decision to take corrective action, a protest that an agency unfairly View the full article

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Oct 13, 2022

• “I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends”: Relying on Affiliate Past Performance and Experience

  For evaluation purposes in a federal procurement, may an offeror rely upon the past performance and experience of its affiliates? The answer generally is a qualified yes, but the answer and the qualifications may change depending on the terms of each solicitation. If, on the othe

  Morrison Foerster LLP · Aug 22, 2022