FAR Council Issues Final Rule Raising Acquisition Thresholds for Inflation - On August 27, 2025, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council published a final rule adjusting numerous acquisition-related thresholds...more
The FAR Council is undertaking a systematic approach to revising the FARs. On August 15, 2025, it released its revisions to FAR Part 4, Administrative and Information Matters, FAR Part 8, Required Sources of Supplies and...more
On August 15, the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) announced agencies may “immediately begin eliminating one-third of requirements from their future contracts...more
The FAR Council has finalized, without changes, a 2024 interim rule that adjusted the requirements of FAR 52.204-7. This is the provision that governs an offeror’s registration in the System for Award Management (SAM). The...more
On August 7, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council issued a final rule, published in the Federal Register, clarifying that an offeror must be registered in the federal System for Award Management (SAM) when...more
Attend ACI's 19th Annual BIG FOUR Pharmaceutical Pricing Boot Camp for an intensive online bootcamp that will provide you with a thorough understanding of essential government contracting processes and pricing concepts for...more
Yogi Berra once said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Those who have spent a career in federal procurement have seen many cycles of well-intentioned procurement reform instead create a system that is more complex,...more
To kick off the new year, this bid protest spotlight highlights two U.S. Government Accountability Office decisions involving System for Award Management (SAM) registration requirements when submitting an “offer” and an...more
The last week saw GAO sustain two protests that should put the nail in the SAM “continuous registration” coffin. The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (“FAR”) Council recently revised the standard System for Award Management...more
After years of anticipation, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council has announced the arrival of its proposed rule to enhance the safeguarding of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in federal contracts (the...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 January 8, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained a pre-award bid protest filed by Bass, Berry & Sims PLC (Bass Berry), which challenged the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers’ (FLETC or the Agency)...more
A contractor who is proposed for debarment is effectively debarred as soon as the notice letter is received. It is like being sentenced before trial and it can take weeks, or months, for the contractor to convince the...more
WHAT: On January 3, 2025, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council published its final rule to amend the FAR to improve consistency between the procurement and nonprocurement rules on suspension and debarment. The...more
The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council issued an interim rule earlier this month revising FAR 52.204-7 to require offerors to be registered in System for Award Management (SAM) at two points in time: “[1] when...more
This month’s Bid Protest Roundup highlights three recent protests: one from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and two from the Court of Federal Claims. The first protest concerns an agency using unstated evaluation...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
WHAT: On November 12, 2024, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council) issued an interim rule amending the FAR to implement the statutory prohibition on procurement and operation of unmanned aircraft systems...more
We have actively monitored the drum beat of bid protest decisions addressing lapses in an offeror’s System for Award Management (SAM.gov or SAM) registration and their impact on an offeror’s eligibility for award. More recent...more
As many government contractors know all too well, doing business with the government requires contractors to become familiar with and adhere to countless rules and regulations governing the procurement process. As shown in a...more
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in TLS Joint Venture, LLC, B-422275, recently sustained a bid protest alleging that the contract awardee’s System for Award Management (SAM) registration lapsed between the...more
The Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) recently sustained a protest of a contract award because the winning contractor failed to maintain their System for Award Management (“SAM”) registration from the date their...more
Companies competing for federal contracting opportunities now have yet another reason to fear their proposals being rejected and their awards getting overturned....more
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) held a webinar on April 4, 2024, which was followed by a White House announcement of the impending launch of revised regulations at Title 2 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (2...more
WHAT: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained a disappointed offeror’s protest alleging that a solicitation’s inclusion of FAR 52.204-7 required the awardee to be found ineligible because its System for Award...more