On April 8, 2020, a final rule (the Rule) was issued amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) and implementing Section 852 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2019 to provide for accelerated payments to DoD’s small business prime contractors and subcontractors supporting DoD contracts. The Rule applies to contracts at or below the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT) – currently $250,000 for DoD contracts – and to contracts for the acquisition of commercial items including commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) items. With an estimated 96% of DoD contracts valued at or under the SAT, the rule appears to reflect DoD’s recognition that it is in the best interests of the government and small business contractors alike to apply this Rule to contracts at or below the SAT and to accelerate payments to small business prime contractors and subcontractors.

Continue Reading DFARS Final Rule Establishes Goal of 15-Day Accelerated Payments for Small Business Contractors

FEMA Seeks All Comers to Supply Government with COVID-19 Supplies

Through its website, the Federal Emergency Management Association (“FEMA”) is encouraging the private sector to step up and support the agency in its response to COVID-19 in a variety of ways. In pertinent part, the website solicits donations of medical supplies and equipment, refers businesses with nonmedical good and/or services that can help the response to the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) Procurement Action Response team, and provides guidance to hospitals and healthcare providers in need of medical supplies.

Continue Reading FEMA Opens a Door and Closes a Window: A Primer on FEMA’s Broad Efforts to Obtain and Retain Medical Supplies to Combat COVID-19

In a Class Determination and Findings (CD&F) published on April 3, 2020, the GSA’s Senior Procurement Executive directed that certain limited supplies to combat the COVID-19 virus identified in the CD&F may be acquired without regard to the domestic preference restrictions imposed by the Trade Agreements Act (TAA) and the Buy American Act (BAA) clauses included in the GSA Schedule and GSA individual procurements. The Senior Procurement Executive concluded that waivers of the domestic preference restrictions were warranted based on scarcity in that the supplies were deemed “temporarily unavailable in sufficient quantity or satisfactory quality” or not “mined, produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably commercial quantities of a satisfactory quality.”

Continue Reading General Services Administration Issues Class-Wide Waiver of Trade Agreements Act and Buy American Act for All GSA Contracts and Schedules for Supplies to Combat the COVID-19 Virus

On March 31, 2020, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment issued a memorandum attaching a class Commercial Item Determination (CID) promulgated by the Defense Contract Management Agency Commercial Item Group (DCMA CIG) identifying as commercial items specific products and services needed by the Department of Defense (DoD) to address the COVID-19 pandemic (Memorandum).  The Memorandum is specifically intended to “allow contracting officers maximum flexibility” in awarding critical contracts for supplies and services needed for the DoD to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Memorandum is expected to facilitate the award of “urgent commercial item procurements,” and the class CID is specifically “limited to the information pertaining to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.”

Continue Reading Commerciality in the Time of Coronavirus—DCMA Issues New Class Commercial Item Determination and Guidance

As most federal contractors know all too well, the United States Government is not always an easy customer.  This is particularly true in circumstances where a contractor encounters performance impacts and seeks to recover increased costs and/or endeavors to secure a schedule extension.  The Government’s negotiating posture in response to these types of requests is seldom inviting.

Continue Reading DoD Extends a Hand to Federal Contractors Navigating the Impacts of COVID-19

This week, the State of Hawai`i instituted some of the most sweeping emergency orders in the country in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For tourists, tourism, federal employees, federal contractors, and the millions of island residents, this means a very different kind of stay while in paradise.

Continue Reading COVID-19 Response — Locked In Paradise — Hawai`i Issues Robust Stay-at-Home and Mandatory Quarantine Orders for Visitors and Residents

As most government contractors are aware, progress payments are a form of contract financing in which the Government pays the contractor based on cost throughout performance of the contract, up to a cap dictated by the terms of the contract.  On March 20, 2020 – “in response to the Coronavirus Disease” – the Department of Defense issued a Class Deviation to contract clauses DFARS 252.232-7004 and FAR 52.232-16, the effect of which is to increase the progress payment rates to 90% for large business concerns and 95% for small business concerns – an increase of 10% and 5%, respectively – from the customary progress payment rates established by DFARS 232.501-1.  The Class Deviation provides that the change is to remain in effect until rescinded.

Continue Reading COVID-19 Update: Department of Defense Issues Class Deviation, Increasing Certain Progress Payment Ceilings

On Friday, March 20, 2020, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued Memorandum No. M-20-18, titled “Managing Federal Contract Performance Issues Associated With The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).”  The Memorandum, directed to the heads of all Executive Departments and constituent federal agencies, provides key guidance on maintaining continued contract performance while respecting the need to protect the safety of the contracting community during this unprecedented time.  The critical aspects of the Memorandum, accompanied by a contractor “To Do” list, are as follows:

Continue Reading Update on the COVID-19 Federal Contractor’s Guide – The Office of Management and Budget Issues Critical Guidance Regarding Federal Contract Performance

The spread of the COVID-19 virus and the unprecedented steps taken by federal, state and local authorities to contain it by shutting down or significantly altering normal business operations pose great challenges to government contractors in meeting the needs of their universal customer, the U.S. Government.  Work spaces are closed.  Supply chains are disrupted.  Key employees may no longer be available to oversee critical operations – both on and off U.S. Government installations.  Here are some proactive measures that contractors can take now to avoid loss and to maximize the potential of obtaining new business opportunities created by the expected exponential increase in government spending:

Continue Reading COVID-19 Federal Contractor’s Guide – Some Quick Points for Surviving and Thriving in This Unprecedented Environment

In the seminal holiday film A Christmas Story, nine-year-old Ralphie Parker uses his diligently earned Little Orphan Annie Secret Society decoder pin to decrypt the secret message from Annie to her fans, only to express disappointment and confusion when he realizes the “secret code” he decrypted is nothing more than a marketing ploy to sell more Ovaltine. Although neither drinking copious amounts of Ovaltine nor possessing a Little Orphan Annie decoder pin are requirements of a federal contractor’s cybersecurity program, the use of encryption—like that employed by Ovaltine and its plucky propagandist—cannot be avoided. The challenge, of course, is approaching encryption in a manner that avoids the same irritating bewilderment experienced by Ralphie Parker. Modern encryption, while inherently and necessarily enigmatic, need not be overcomplicated, and that’s a good thing, because federal contractors, namely Department of Defense contractors, now face specific standards of encryption necessary to meet and maintain certain federal cybersecurity standards or bear the significant risk commensurate with noncompliance. Whether a contractor falls under the auspices of Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.204-21, Defense FAR Supplement 252.204-7012, or the newly unveiled Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), contractor use of encryption is poised to be a critical element of compliance for the Federal Government over the next decade. This means that contractors must have a working knowledge of federal encryption standards to understand not only how such standards apply to the storage and handling of data but also whether the contractor can truly comply with those standards or have the wherewithal to understand the type of information technology products they are permitted to provide the Government.

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