2024-2025 Bid Protest Decisions with Far-Reaching Impacts for Government Contractors
Navigating Bid Protest Choices at GAO and COFC
DE Under 3: U.S. GAO Report on Military Spouse Employment Focused on Challenges of Part-Time Work
A Discussion with GAO General Counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez
GovCon Perspectives Podcast Episode 24: Effective Use of “Open and Frank” Discussions in Bid Protests
Award Protests: Choosing the Forum
How to Assess the Likelihood of Success in Deciding Whether to Bring a Bid Protest
The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) response to congressional inquiry regarding GAO’s bid protest function (Section 885 response), while pushing back against some proposed changes that could disincentive meritorious...more
In FI Consulting, Inc., B-423274 (April 11, 2025), FI Consulting, Inc. (FIC) protested its elimination from a procurement for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program support services after the agency rejected its...more
This month’s Bid Protest Roundup highlights two Court of Federal Claim decisions, addressing past performance and injunctive relief, and one by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), clarifying the applicability...more
On January 15, 2025, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council published a proposed rule overhauling the FAR’s Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) provisions. The proposed rule follows a December 2022 law that...more
On January 8, 2025, in UNICA-BPA JV, LLC, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained a protester’s challenge to its elimination from the competition for failing to have an active System for Award Management...more
On November 12, the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (together, the "FAR Council") issued an interim rule, effective November 12, 2024, to amend the...more
One forum to raise a protest against the award of a contract is at the agency responsible for the procurement, pursuant to the procedures set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) 33.103. The procedures require that...more
In January 2024, the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) published 31 bid protest decisions, two of which resulted in decisions sustaining the protesters’ challenges. There were also two requests for costs, one of which...more
In a previous article, we analyzed what made protests successful at the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) in Fiscal Year 2023 (“FY23”). Now, we want to share some insights we gained while conducting the same analysis...more
On November 8, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied an unsuccessful bidder’s protest that asserted the Veteran Administration’s (VA) evaluation of Texas Waste Company’s past performance was unreasonable and...more
On November 21, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied an unsuccessful bidder’s protest, arguing that the terms of a solicitation were biased and that the awardee failed to comply with a mandatory solicitation...more
Each month, Venable's Government Contracts Group publishes a summary of recent legal developments of interest to the government contractor community. ...more
Contractors whose protests result in the challenged agency’s taking corrective action may attempt to recover their protest costs, particularly when they feel that the corrective action was unduly delayed....more
When an agency announces its intent to take corrective action in response to a protest, it’s easy for the protester to feel that it has “won”—and to some extent it has. At the very least, its protest has prompted the agency...more
It’s not unusual for defeated protesters to feel as though the explanation for their defeat short changes their arguments. Indeed, this might be the case for every defeated protester (or intervenor, or agency)....more
Quick Hit: OFCCP has issued a new Directive (Directive 2018-07), announcing its intention to develop an Affirmative Action Program Verification Initiative (the “Verification Initiative”). The Directive only notifies the...more