Protests

It depends on the rules of the protest forum.

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ji20874 said:

It depends on the rules of the protest forum.

Hint hint. Check the rules of the protest forums.

See FAR Subpart 33.1 Protests for information on protest to the Agency, to GAO, and to US Court of Federal Claims.

Per GAO:  "In general, a protest challenging the terms of a solicitation must be filed before the time for receipt of initial proposals. A protest challenging the award of a contract must be filed within 10 days of when a protester knows or should know of the basis of the protest (a special case applies where, under certain circumstances, the protester receives a required debriefing). Please be aware that the regulations regarding the timely filing of protests depend on the circumstances of each case and are strictly enforced. For more information, see our Bid Protest Regulations (4 C.F.R. § 21.2) and Bid Protests at GAO: a Descriptive Guide."

https://www.gao.gov/legal/bid-protests/faqs

Of course, the SBA has its own rules for the protests it hears that might correspond to the award of a contract, like a size or status protest.  While the OP didn't say whether the protest related to the award of a (FAR-based) contract, other courts have their own rules for protests related to Other Transactions.  In addition to the Descriptive Guide noted above, the Briefing Paper from October 2008 entitled, "Choice of Forum for Bid Protests" is a useful introduction if you are looking for a place to start your research.  Hopefully @Contractor500 has found this helpful, but I'm not sure we've moved the ball any further than @ji20874's original reply.

I don’t think that “we” need to move the ball further. The OP can find the information, depending upon the forum they seek to use.

If the op intends to submit a protest, it will have to use the rules of the applicable forum as well as FAR Part 33, anyway.

“Part 33 Protests, Disputes, and Appeals”

I agree.  Apologies for my imprecise language.  If forced to guess--and what would WIFCON be without that--I suspect @Contractor500 posted reflexively without doing much research, probably found the answer, and forgot about the post.

Thank you all for your feedback! Apologies, I didn't get back to the site to see your responses until now. I did find info on the GAO site yesterday. I'm not familiar with the protest forum. Can someone send me the link to what that is exactly? I should have filed this under beginner questions, sorry! Thanks again!

A protest forum is a place where a protest may be heard.  The GAO is one — the Court of Federal Claims is another — the agency itself is yet another.  You can read all about it in FAR subpart 33.1.  Then, there are size challenge protests and so forth that are wholly different.

Thank you ji20874!!!! Very helpful!! I appreciate it.

See, https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-05-436T for an interesting point on timing of a protest.