Regulatory & Statutory Developments

For just over a year, the federal government has been running a strange experiment in technology procurement. Through its OneGov program, the General Services Administration (GSA) put leading enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) platforms in agencies’ hands for $1 or less. Three of those offers were set to expire on September 30, 2026.

Now we know what comes next, at least for one of them. On September 10, GSA announced the first agreement in the next phase of its OneGov AI strategy. The $1 price was replaced by a 27-month consumption-based arrangement running from October 1, 2026, through December 31, 2028. During this period, agencies pay no platform fee and make no minimum commitment, but they pay for usage at 50% off token-based pricing. Usage eligibility extends not only to all three federal branches but also to state, local, and tribal governments. GSA notes that the deal includes a one-year check-in and requires providers to report utilization and cost-savings data (feeling very transactional data reporting-esque).

So the free trial isn’t exactly over, but the flat price that never rose with use is gone. That changes the question for agencies. It’s no longer about whether to try it; it’s about what the technology costs at scale and what it would cost to exit.

Continue Reading The $1 AI Honeymoon Is Over, and GSA Has Drafted a Postnup

If you have opened a federal solicitation this year and felt like you were reading two rulebooks stapled together, you were not imagining it. Since the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) overhaul began, agencies have been buying under class deviations while the FAR Council works on making the new text official. The result is a generation of solicitations that cite the overhauled FAR in one clause and the old one in the next. Now the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has weighed in, and its answer is one part sympathy and three parts homework.

Continue Reading Not a Model of Clarity: GAO Takes Its First Hard Look at Solicitations That Mix the Old FAR with the New

The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s latest Revolutionary FAR Overhaul proposals include significant changes for federal contractors, including new rules affecting required-use contract vehicles, commercial contracting, source selection, contract types and technical data rights. McCarter Government Contracts & Global Trade partners Franklin C. Turner and Alexander W. Major examine the proposals, identify the changes that matter…

Here is a scenario that should keep every proposal manager up at night. You hit “send” on a corrected quote 29 minutes before the contracting officer’s deadline. The agency’s own email security software holds it for 42 minutes and drops it into her inbox 14 minutes late. You win the award anyway. Then the incumbent files a protest, having found the timestamps in the administrative record, and the US Court of Federal Claims (COFC) takes the award away. That is what happened in FYI-For Your Information, Inc. v. United States, No. 26-cv-0032 (Fed. Cl. Aug. 24, 2026), and the lesson is blunt. Late is late, even when the Government’s own server is the reason.

Continue Reading Held at the Gate: COFC Enjoins a DEA Award Because the Agency’s Own Email Filter Made the Winner’s Corrected Quote Late

Every driver knows the sound a missed exit makes. Silence, then 14 minutes of profane commentary. It is worse in October, when the ridgeline is on fire with color and the next turnaround is 11 miles out.

On September 1, 2026, the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Board (Board) published two final rules, 91 Fed. Reg. 56056 and 91 Fed. Reg. 56061. Both take effect October 1, 2026, and together they build contractors an off-ramp out of CAS. It is unmarked, and for existing contracts it does not open until your next full cost accounting period. Is your blinker on? Should it be?

Continue Reading Modified Behavior: The CAS Off-Ramp Almost Nobody Is Talking About

Labor Day has a way of sneaking up on the federal market. The fiscal year is closing, the fourth-quarter obligation sprint is in full swing, and most of us are also trying to squeeze one more week out of summer vacation. This year, the Small Business Administration (SBA) used the last stretch of summer to publish something that deserves your attention before the beach chairs go back in the garage. Its proposal would change who counts as small in nearly every industry that sells to the Government, and the comment window closes two weeks after Labor Day.

Continue Reading Small Is About to Get a Lot Bigger: SBA Proposes to Rewrite the Size Standards for Nearly Every Industry That Sells to the Government

The proposed rule is now history. On August 11, 2026, the Small Business Administration (SBA) published its final rule, Reforms to 13 CFR 124.103 To Remove SBA’s 8(a) Program’s Rebuttable Presumption of Social Disadvantage for Individually Owned Firms Only, 91 Fed. Reg. 51568 (Aug. 11, 2026) (the Rule). The Rule takes effect September 10, 2026, and by its own terms applies to all pending applications of individually-owned applicants as of that date. A firm with an application sitting in the queue will therefore be measured against a test that did not exist when it applied.

Continue Reading Prove the Policy, Not the Story: SBA’s Final Rule Rewrites the 8(a) Social Disadvantage Test

In December 2025, Section 1826 of the FY 2026 NDAA created one of the most valuable classifications in defense contracting and most companies that qualify don’t know it yet. Qualify as a “nontraditional defense contractor” and you’re exempt from certified cost or pricing data, FAR Part 31, and the entire DFARS business-systems architecture. The kicker?

Why a clean name-match screen is no longer enough, and why the diligence meant to find hidden China exposure can create risk on the other side of the Pacific.

Picture the boardwalk version of supply-chain compliance. It’s August. Fingers are that odd combination of french fry-greasy and ice cream-sticky The arcade is humming. Someone hands you the mallet. The first mole pops up with a familiar name: Huawei. Easy. Then SMIC. Fine. Then a listed Chinese military company. Also easy. You swing, you hit the obvious targets, and for a moment the game looks like it’s under control.

Then the real game starts.

Continue Reading China Supply Chain Compliance Is Becoming Whack-a-Mole

What Federal Contractors Should Be Watching This Summer

Summer 2026 has arrived with a new wave of artificial intelligence (AI) policy from the White House. On June 2, 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security” (the Order). The Order directs federal agencies—on aggressive 30‑ and 60‑day timelines, with key deliverables due by July 2, 2026 and August 1, 2026—to harden federal information systems with AI‑enabled defenses, establish a voluntary framework for pre‑release federal access to so‑called “covered frontier models,” and prioritize criminal enforcement against malicious AI‑enabled cyber activity. Although the Order is framed as innovation‑and‑security policy and expressly disclaims any “mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement” for new AI models, it will have immediate operational consequences for federal information‑technology and cyber contractors, AI developers, critical‑infrastructure operators, and their service providers.

Continue Reading AI Heats Up: New Executive Order on Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security