SmallGovCon
Small business federal contracting commentary.
SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 27- July 1, 2022
Happy Fourth of July, Readers! We hope you have a fun and relaxing holiday weekend planned. Here are 3 fun facts about Independence Day: 1. The Declaration of Independence Was Written on a Laptop. Not a modern laptop, but still. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Indepen
Koprince Law LLC · Jul 1, 2022
Small Business Committee Raises Concerns to SBA About Certification Speed, Category Management
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee held a hearing to discuss how the SBA will meet Small Business Contracting goals, and specifically how the SBA can meet its goals related to socioeconomic programs. The committee challenged the Office of Govern
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 29, 2022
Back to Basics: Pre-Award Bid Protests
Many bid protests we handle at Koprince McCall Pottroff are filed after the contract has been awarded to an offeror. However, sometimes there are issues that are apparent in the solicitation that require clarification or correction prior to the bidding or proposal deadline. In th
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 23, 2022
House Passes HUBZone Price Evaluation Preference Clarification Act of 2021
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed H. R. 5879, clarifying the application of the price evaluation preference for qualified HUBZone small business concerns to certain contracts. If this becomes law, the Act would make sure the HUBZone Price Evaluation Preference app
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 22, 2022
SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 20-24, 2022
Happy summer, readers! We hope you have some fun plans for the season. Here at SmallGovCon we are gearing up for some nice R & R time with friends and family. But, the first few days of summer have been anything but lazy, with much activity in federal government contracting, incl
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 21, 2022
Webinar: June 23, 1:00pm EDT, An Introduction to Government Small Business Certifications, by Steven Koprince, Govology Legal Analyst
We are pleased to announce that Steven Koprince, Govology Legal Analyst and retired founder of Koprince McCall Pottroff LLC, will be kicking off his work with one of our favorite federal contracting partners: Govology! Join Steven in his new role as a legal analyst as he discusse
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 20, 2022
SBA Updates Size Standards for Wholesale Trade and Retail Trade
SBA has issued new size standards for industries in the Wholesale Trade and Retail Trade sectors. The interesting thing about these size standards is that they don’t apply to federal procurement actions. Instead, there is a different size standard for supply contracts. So, did SB
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 20, 2022
SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 13-17, 2022
Happy Friday and Happy Juneteenth! This year, June 19, Juneteenth, falls on a Sunday, so the federal holiday, established in 2021, will be observed on Monday, June 20. Juneteenth arose from the date of June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas–when African Americans in the state learned
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 17, 2022
No Pay, No Need to Say: GAO Clarifies What Judgments and Settlements Require Disclosure under FAR 52.209-7
Representations and certifications are an integral part of the requirements for any solicitation. While each solicitation may require different representations and certifications, what precisely is required for a given representation or certification is generally governed by the
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 15, 2022
SmallGovCon Week in Review: June 6-10, 2022
Happy Friday, Readers! We hope you had a very productive week and can take some time this weekend to relax and unwind. The start of June is proving to be a wet one here in the Midwest and the gardens and trees are loving it! Everything is so green and the spring flowers are beaut
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 10, 2022
SmallGovCon Welcomes Back Greg Weber!
Greg Weber has recently rejoined the blog and is once again one of our attorney-authors. We’re excited to have him back! Greg spent a stint in the healthcare industry, which has given him increased experience in both regulatory and transactional matters. His recent post discusses
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 10, 2022
Leaving OHA Email on “Unread” still Counts as Receipt For Appeal Timing Rules
The SBA’s OHA administrative judges recently sent a warning to all small business contractors that they need to keep an eye on their email inboxes no matter how late in the business day it is. In a size appeal decision, OHA found that even an unread email could derail a contracto
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 9, 2022
Department of Defense Unveils Plan to Address Effects of Inflation on Contracts
Inflation. A word no one likes, but it is something that is currently impacting nearly every facet of our lives. Gas prices continue to rise, grocery costs are through the roof, and everyday living expenses are taking more hard-earned money from our country’s workers than ever be
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 6, 2022
Upcoming SBA Rule Will Switch to 24-Month Calculation for Employee Size Standards
SBA has issued a final rule changing all employee size standards to a 24-month calculation. This rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on June 6, 2022, and and will take effect 30 days from the date it is officially published. Let’s take a closer look. This fi
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 3, 2022
SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 30-June 3, 2022
Happy June, Readers! Can you believe it’s the start of summer already? This year is certainly flying by. I hope you have lots of fun summer plans with family and friends. I know that I’m looking forward to it. We’ve included several articles that hopefully provide some good infor
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 3, 2022
GAO Sustains Protest for Converting Best-Value Evaluation into LPTA
In a recent decision, GAO sustained a protest arguing that the agency had actually converted a best-value tradeoff procurement into a lowest-priced, technically acceptable competition. GAO held that the agency had not properly followed the evaluation criteria. In the protest, AT&
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 2, 2022
Memorial Day 2022: A Day of Remembrance
Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day started on May 30th, 1868 as a day of remembrance for Civil War veterans. According to History.com, the date was chosen because it wasn’t tied to any particular battle. In 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This
Koprince Law LLC · May 27, 2022
Setting the Standard: How the SBA Determines Size Standards for Small Businesses
In a recent post, we examined some proposed new size standards for manufacturing and other industries that utilize employee-based size standards. This probably got many of you wondering: How does the SBA determine what the size standards should be? It’s a good question, and today
Koprince Law LLC · May 26, 2022
Back to Basics: EDWOSB Eligibility
Last week, Nicole Pottroff went through the basics of eligibility for participation in the SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business (“WOSB”) Federal Contracting Program. Today, I’ll walk you through the additional eligibility requirements for participation in SBA’s Economically Disadvant
Koprince Law LLC · May 23, 2022
Coming Soon: The SmallsCast Podcast
We invite you to tune into this informative podcast series hosted by The Smalls with discussions on federal government contracting. I just taped an episode with Nate Moser and it was a blast! In it, I discussed what we do at the firm to assist our federal government contracting c
Koprince Law LLC · May 20, 2022
SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 16-20, 2022
Happy Friday, Readers! We’ve been as busy as bees this week here at SmallGovCon. We hope you have had a productive week, as well. The flowers are blooming, the crops are growing and the grass is greening up nicely here in Kansas. Here are a few articles on the happenings in feder
Koprince Law LLC · May 20, 2022
Buy American Act Thresholds Are Going Up
As we’ve written about, it seems like there have been more changes to the Buy American Act and domestic preferences in the last few years than in decades before that. Recently, the FAR Council issued a final rule that spells out how the domestic content thresholds will increase o
Koprince Law LLC · May 19, 2022
Back to Basics: WOSB Eligibility
To level the playing field for women business owners, the Federal Government limits competition for certain contracts to businesses participating in SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business (“WOSB”) Federal Contracting Program. Ideally, those contracts are for specific industries where W
Koprince Law LLC · May 17, 2022
SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 9-13, 2022
Happy Friday blog readers! Hope you are having a nice week. Kick back and relax with the latest federal contracting updates. This week saw some interesting federal contracting news. GAO has issued a new report on ways the federal government can potentially save billions of dollar
Koprince Law LLC · May 13, 2022
Should We Discuss This? Agencies Required to Enter into Discussions with All Offerors in Competitive Range
If you google “GAO discussions,” you will likely see a multitude of results talking about “meaningful discussions.” Source selection authorities (SSA) are given a large amount of discretion beyond that. Despite the high level of discretion SSAs have, there are still certain bound
Koprince Law LLC · May 11, 2022