On April 24, 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary, Sean P. Duffy, issued a guidance letter to all grant recipients of DOT funding, notifying them of:
1. The DOT’s new interpretations of...more
As we have hinted at (and even mentioned) in some of our more recent client alerts, the proverbial other shoe has now dropped. In the April 15, 2025, Executive Order entitled "Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement"...more
On March 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order No. 14240 titled “Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement” (the EO).1 While less than perfectly written, it does seem to have the...more
Given the impending deadline of March 14, 2025, for Congress to pass a budget or another continuing resolution (CR) (and the president signing same), coupled with the recent happenings in Washington, D.C., we thought it would...more
3/12/2025
/ Contract Terms ,
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Funding ,
Government Shutdown ,
Risk Management ,
Subcontractors
On February 1, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order No. 14193, titled “Imposing Duties to Address the Flow of Illicit Drugs Across Our Northern Border” (Tariff EO). The EO announced tariffs that would impact a wide...more
While it is not our intent to flood your inbox with articles, alerts, and analyses; the pace, breadth, and volume of actions by the Trump administration in its first month (not even 100 days) is nothing short of remarkable....more
3/4/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Funding ,
Fraud Abuse and Waste ,
Government Agencies ,
Government Efficiency ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Trump Administration
As discussed in a recent Cozen O’Connor Alert, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has been at the top of President Trump’s mind, so much so that he recently issued an executive order effectively ending the use of DEI in...more
2/12/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Compliance ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Trump Administration
On January 21, 2025, Judge Ryan T. Holte of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued a decision finding now former-President Biden’s February 4, 2022, Executive Order 14063 (EO) and the resulting Federal Acquisition...more
1/28/2025
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Bid Protests ,
Bid Solicitation ,
CICA ,
Competition ,
Construction Industry ,
Court of Federal Claims ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Government Agencies ,
Labor Relations ,
Project Labor Agreements ,
Subcontractors ,
Unfair Competition ,
Unions
On January 8, 2025, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council withdrew its Proposed Rule on Pay Equity and Transparency in Federal Contracting (the proposed rule), which was initially introduced in January 2024. This...more
1/17/2025
/ Biden Administration ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Pay Transparency ,
Proposed Rules ,
Reporting Requirements ,
State Labor Laws
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published a notice in the Federal Register on October 29, 2024, notifying federal contractors of its receipt of two new requests under the...more
On October 15, 2024, the Department of Defense (DoD) published the long-anticipated first part of its final rule (the Final Rule) for the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. After the implementation of...more
On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued its decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which put an end to Chevron Deference. Chevron Deference was a doctrine that required courts to...more
7/11/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Article I ,
Article III ,
Board of Contract Appeals ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
COFC ,
Contract Disputes Act ,
Davis-Bacon Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
SCOTUS
On June 7, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit broadened the Court of Federal Claims’ ability to oversee bid protests in Percipient.ai, Inc. v. United States. This case arose out of a bid protest to an...more
On Monday, June 24, 2024, a federal judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas (the Court) instituted a nationwide injunction on the enforcement of portions of the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2023...more
7/2/2024
/ Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals ,
Construction Industry ,
Davis-Bacon Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Injunctions ,
Prime Contractor ,
Related Acts Clauses ,
Subcontractors ,
Wage and Hour
On April 9, 2024, The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced numerous revisions to its in-place rules for administering its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program. The new rule follows a Notice of Proposed...more
September 30th represents a number of things, the end of September, entry into Autumn, and, most critically, the end of the Federal Government’s fiscal year, to name a few. As such, the Government must have a budget in place...more
On August 14, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a “pre-publication” version of its final guidance to promote the use of American-made materials in federally funded infrastructure projects.1 The guidance...more
8/29/2023
/ Build America Investment Initiative ,
Buy America ,
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Project ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Funding ,
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) ,
Manufacturers ,
OMB ,
Supply Chain
On August 8, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL or the Department) issued a Final Rule titled “Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulation” (the Final Rule), comprising 812 pages. The changes made in this Final...more
On Monday, May 22, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) issued its decision in M.R. Pittman Group, LLC v. United States, Case No. 21-2325, in which it overturned years of precedent...more
As part of the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed in December 2022, Congress granted the Department of Defense (DoD) new authority to modify existing fixed-price contracts to compensate defense contractors...more
Traditionally, many federal contracts contain tax exemption provisions relating to state sales and use taxes being charged against the purchase and inclusion of materials and equipment to be incorporated into federal...more
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published a notice on August 19 in the Federal Register informing all federal contractors that it had received a Freedom of Information Act...more
The past few years in the government contracting space has seen significant changes: from the recently passed infrastructure bill and its $1.2 trillion infusion for the modernization of the country’s rapidly aging...more