SmallGovCon
Small business federal contracting commentary.
SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program Now Closed
SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans provided nearly $800 billion dollars of crucial financial support to over 8.5 million businesses and nonprofit organizations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the proverb goes, “all good things must come to an end.” SBA clo
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 3, 2021
DoD Proposes DFARS Amendment to Enhance Debriefings
Receiving a notice that a competitor received an award can be a punch to the gut. This feeling is compounded when the requested debriefing is short on details. Offerors are normally left with more questions than answers. The DoD has proposed to amend the DFARS to enhance debriefi
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 2, 2021
The CIO-SP4 RFP Allows Broad Past Performance Information–But Does It Go Too Far?
One of my major concerns with the draft solicitation for the CIO-SP4 GWAC was the limited nature of the past performance NITAAC intended to consider. Under the draft RFP, NITAAC would not have considered the past performance of subcontractors–something I believed violated 13 C.F.
Koprince Law LLC · Jun 1, 2021
SmallGovCon Week In Review: May 24-28
As we prepare for a long Memorial Day weekend, let us not forget to honor and thank all those that have served and continue to serve our country. Memorial Day is a day of reflection for those that have come before us and paved the way for our sacred freedoms that are often taken
Koprince Law LLC · May 28, 2021
Debriefing Exception to Protest Timeliness Rule Doesn’t Apply to SBIR Procurements, Period
Equitus Corporation was sure it was following the right procedures when it requested a debriefing after receiving a letter stating its proposal under an Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) solicitation had been rejected. The Air Force even provided the debriefing
Koprince Law LLC · May 27, 2021
The “Three-in-Two” SBA Joint Venture Rule is Partly Gone–Now It’s Time to Get Rid of the Rest
Last year, SBA made joint venturing a little easier by relaxing the so-called “three-in-two” rule. But the “two-year” portion of the rule still exists–and in my view, the rule continues to unfairly elevate form over substance. SBA, it’s time to take the plunge, and get rid of the
Koprince Law LLC · May 25, 2021
New HUBZone Program Guidance Sheds Light on Principal Office Long-Term Investment Rules
The HUBZone Program has released updated FAQs that provide guidance on important HUBZone rules and how SBA will be interpreting them. While these don’t have the authority of a regulation, the new guidance shows how SBA will come down on certain HUBZone questions that aren’t answe
Koprince Law LLC · May 24, 2021
SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 17-21
It’s been a very soggy week in the Midwest and we are looking forward to our normal sunny weather here in Lawrence, Kansas. We hope you are staying dry and the sun is shining bright in your neck of the woods. There has been a lot of activity in federal government contracting news
Koprince Law LLC · May 21, 2021
Agency Not Required to Hunt Down and Investigate Bad Publicity, Says GAO
In a recent decision, GAO said that it is not the contracting agency’s job to play investigator when it comes to publicly available negative past performance information. GAO acknowledged that there may be certain situations where the agency is required to consider such informati
Koprince Law LLC · May 20, 2021
$15 Minimum Wage Coming to Federal Contracting in 2022
Beginning January 30, 2022, all prime contractors and subcontractors doing work on a government contract will be required to pay workers at least $15 per hour, based on a recent executive order. The executive order does not stop there, beginning in 2023 the wage will go up annual
Koprince Law LLC · May 19, 2021
NAICS Code Challenges Must Show why the Code Chosen is Incorrect, OHA Says
We’ve all seen cases of agencies assigning NAICS codes to solicitations that just seem…off. But, unless a contractor can show that the code chosen was clearly erroneous, government contractors will simply have to make do with what they’ve been given. The OHA recently handed down
Koprince Law LLC · May 18, 2021
Solicitation Omits NAICS Code and Size Standard–But Agency Still Rejects Large Business’s Bid
An offeror’s bid was rejected because the offeror wasn’t a small business–even though the solicitation didn’t contain a NAICS code or corresponding size standard. It sounds like a successful bid protest waiting to happen, but GAO didn’t see it that way. Instead, GAO dismissed the
Koprince Law LLC · May 17, 2021
SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 10-14, 2021
This week on the blog we continue to bring you coverage of federal government contracting news as government agencies search for solutions to cyber security challenges and, in response, contractors enhance their own cyber defenses. Here are a several other happenings in federal g
Koprince Law LLC · May 14, 2021
COFC Examines Small Business Size Recertification After Merger or Sale
A recent Court of Federal Claims decision examined the impact on the award to a small business when that small business is acquired, after proposal submission but before award, by a large business. In doing so, the court looked very closely at the FAR clauses incorporated into th
Koprince Law LLC · May 13, 2021
CIO-SP4 Postponed (Again) But Final Signature Expected Next Week
NITAAC’s Acting Director Brian Goodger released an update on the long awaited CIO-SP4 Request for Proposals (RFP) today. He provided some insight as to the delays in the RFP’s release and assured everyone that they expect the last signature on the final RFP next week. For those w
Koprince Law LLC · May 12, 2021
Late Quotation? No Protest: Protester who Submitted Quotation Late is Not Interested Party, per GAO
You submit a quotation after the given solicitation deadline. The solicitation includes a provision stating, in part, that late submissions will not be considered, but the Contracting Officer (CO) evaluates your quotation anyway. The CO goes with another contractor, and you submi
Koprince Law LLC · May 12, 2021
GAO: Unequal Exchanges With Offerors by Agency Leads to Sustained Protest
An agency providing an opportunity to substantially revise a proposal can seem too good to be true. And sometimes, it is. It is a fundamental principle of procurement law that offerors must be treated equally. When one offeror is given an opportunity to “fix” the deficiencies in
Koprince Law LLC · May 10, 2021
Small GovCon Week in Review: May 3-7, 2021
It will be a great weekend to celebrate Mother’s Day and show all those hard working moms out there some appreciation. We hope you can get out and enjoy the wonderful spring weather and make the day special for the mothers in your life. As a wise person once said: “A Mother is sh
Koprince Law LLC · May 7, 2021
Five Things You Should Know: Past Performance of Subcontractors, Joint Venture Partners, and Affiliates
The government’s hard shift away from lowest-price, technically acceptable evaluations has magnified the importance of past performance in many competitive acquisitions. For start-ups and other companies new to the federal marketplace, past performance requirements can present a
Koprince Law LLC · May 6, 2021
Alert: SBA Will Freeze HUBZone Maps Until June 30, 2023
HUBZone companies will get some additional time to plan for the unfreezing of the HUBZone maps by SBA. SBA has just issued a direct final rule that will extend the HUBZone map freeze from December 31, 2021, to June 30, 2023. In an earlier rule, SBA had indicated that it would fre
Koprince Law LLC · May 4, 2021
5 Things You Should Know: SBA’s Recent 8(a) Program Updates
SBA has been hard at work this past year updating its 8(a) Business Development Program rules and policies. And we have been doing our best here at SmallGovCon to keep you posted. Many of our blog posts focused on SBA’s monumental November 2020 “rule overhaul,” which implemented
Koprince Law LLC · May 4, 2021
SmallGovCon Welcomes John Holtz
I am pleased to announce that John Holtz has joined our team of government contracts attorney-authors here at SmallGovCon. John is an associate attorney with Koprince Law LLC, where his practice focuses on federal government contracts law. Before joining our team, John practiced
Koprince Law LLC · May 3, 2021
SBA OHA: Ownership and Control are Not the Same in the WOSB Program
A company learned the hard way that just because their business is majority owned by a woman, it doesn’t mean they are a Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) in the eyes of the SBA. The question is one of both ownership and control. The case is SBA No. WOSB-113&navigationPath=Search
Koprince Law LLC · May 3, 2021
SmallGovCon Week in Review: April 26-30, 2021
If April showers bring May flowers, Lawrence, Kansas should be a kaleidoscope of color next week. The rain was so heavy at one point our street became a river for a few hours. The sun is shining today, however, and you can almost see the grass growing. It’s time to fire up the la
Koprince Law LLC · Apr 30, 2021
GAO: Solicitation Cannot Require a Protégé Have the Same Experience as its Mentor
SBA regulations prohibit agencies from requiring the same past performance record from both mentor and protégé entities. The regulations explicitly prohibit this type of requirement. In a recent GAO decision, it sustained the protest where an agency required all members in a join
Koprince Law LLC · Apr 28, 2021