Government Contracts Monitor

Short Take: FAR Council Issues Final Rule on Contract Restrictions Based on Felony Convictions and Delinquent Taxes

October 24, 2016

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council recently adopted its previously proposed restrictions on federal agencies’ ability to enter into contracts with corporations having a delinquent federal tax liability or a felony conviction under any federal law. The final rule, which took effect on September 30, 2016, establishes an outright prohibition against contracts where either of these…

Federal Lawsuit Challenges Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Reporting Requirements

October 18, 2016

The Final Rule implementing Executive Order 13673, Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces, is due to take effect on October 25.  Jackson Kelly has previously written about the new rule, and many federal contractors are struggling to understand which provisions apply to them and when they will take effect.  The reporting requirements mandated by the rule are set to phase in over a two year period and will…

DoD Issues Final Rule on Cyber Incident Reporting for Contractors

October 18, 2016

The Department of Defense (DoD) recently issued its Final Rule outlining the mandatory cyber incident reporting requirements for DoD contractors and subcontractors, as well as other members of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) (entities with grants, cooperative agreements, other transaction agreements, technology investment agreements, and any other type of legal instrument or agreement) doing…

Short Take: GSA Releases Audit Report of its Purchase Card Program

October 11, 2016

The General Services Administration (GSA) performed a routine annual audit of its Government Purchase Card (GPC) program, analyzing transactions from Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15). Under the GPC program, cardholders procured $27.5 million worth of goods and services for GSA in FY15, down nearly 8 percent from the previous year’s use. Overall card use has decreased every year since 2011, when GSA card…

Short Take: Federal Minimum Wage for Contractors Increasing to $10.20 in 2017

September 27, 2016

On September 19, 2016, the Department of Labor (DoL) released guidance on the impending increase in the minimum wage for contractors performing work covered by Executive Order (EO) 13658.  The EO was signed in 2014 and raised the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour as of January 1, 2015. It also established a procedure for determining the amount of annual minimum wage increases for each year going…

Short Take: Uncertainty Remains Over 2017 NDAA

September 13, 2016

As Congress returned to session last week, the only certainty with regard to the 2017 Defense budget is more uncertainty. A third attempt to vote on the Senate’s version of the bill was blocked last week by filibuster, despite the bill’s passing the bipartisan Senate Appropriations Committee several months ago.  The House has passed its own version of the NDAA, but even if the Senate is able to…

FAR Council and DOL Publish Final Rule and Guidance on Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces

September 6, 2016

Two years after President Obama signed Executive Order (EO) 13673, “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces”, the FAR Council has published the final rule implementing it. The Department of Labor (DOL) has also published the final version of its implementing guidance for the rule. Jackson Kelly initially wrote about the EO’s implementation last year when the DOL published its proposed guidance. The EO has…

ABA Public Contact Section Elects New Council Members

September 6, 2016

At the American Bar Association’s Annual Meeting last month in San Francisco, the Section of Public Contract Law elected four new members to three-year terms on its governing Council. The new members include: Eric Whytsell of Jackson Kelly PLLC; Judge Marian Blank Horn of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; Bryant Snee, Deputy Director – Commercial Litigation, U.S. Department of Justice; and Marine…

Short Take: SBA Revises HUBZone Rules to Implement Changes in 2016 NDAA

August 8, 2016

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced a final rule making several amendments to the HUBZone Program designed to implement section 866 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (2016 NDAA). Like Section 866 of the 2016 NDAA, the rule expands the HUBZone program to assist small businesses in disaster areas and base closure areas and provides equal…

Short Take: FAR Council Updates Standard Forms for Bonds

August 1, 2016

The FAR Council recently issued a final rule amending five standard forms prescribed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) for contracts involving bonds and other financial protections. The revisions are aimed at expanding the options for organization types and clarifying liability limitations. 

More particularly, the new rule addresses the concerns by surety bond producers that they may be…

New GSA Transactional Reporting Rule Substantially Changes FSS and GWACs Contracting

July 24, 2016

The General Services Administration (GSA) has issued its final rule significantly revising the General Services Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to add the new transactional data reporting requirement.  The rule imposes new reporting requirements on contractors holding certain Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts, Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) and Government-wide Indefinite…

Short Take: Final FAR Rule Addressing SBA Regulatory Changes

July 18, 2016

On July 14, the DoD, GSA and NASA finalized a rule to amend the FAR, implementing regulatory changes to the federal government’s policy on small business subcontracting. The changes reflect new regulations issued by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2013 that stemmed from the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act. The final rule, which takes effect November 1, calls for significant changes to the…