The House Armed Services Committee has voted out its version of the FY’24 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the bill that sets broad spending limits and strategy priorities for DOD and usually contains a host of new directives that impact procurement.  It will authorize $886 billion in total defense and defense-related spending.  At the same time, the Senate is making progress on most of its FY’24 appropriations measures, skipping subcommittee mark up and going to full committee to save time.  By comparison, there was no top-level agreement among Senate appropriators last year at this time to allow for such action, so this year’s work is Read more

The federal district court for the District of Columbia just threw a major wrench into how some companies determine whether or not they are small based on their annual revenue.  The decision, in Bid Solve, Inc., 2023 WL 3521616, not only complicates size determinations when based on annual sales but may likely expand a small firm’s False Claims Act exposure.  In short, Small Business Administration (SBA) guidance typically directs a company doing business under a NAIC’s code using an annual receipts size determination to rely on revenue reported on its tax returns.  Companies are supposed to take a multi-year average, now typically five Read more

No airline wants to kick a passenger off for bad behavior.  It costs time and money to remove someone who, while they need to go, won’t leave without “help”.  Companies, whether government contractors or not, will typically go to great lengths to impress customers with great service.  It is, after all, easier to keep an existing customer than to attract a new one.  There are limits, however, on how far a company can go to keep a customer happy and sometimes it’s better to let a bad customer go than to try and fix an impossible situation.  Read more

GSA leaders are generally well-intentioned when it comes to issuing acquisition policies.  Flexibility on inflation-driven price adjustments, guidance on GSA Schedule issues, and communication on specific IDIQ acquisition strategies are all areas where the agency is communicating well.  Both industry and GSA have, or are intended to, benefit.  The messages, though, don’t always get down to front line workers, or, if they do, the communication ends up looking like a game of “telephone” where the half the message goes through, and half makes Read more

The federal fourth quarter “busy season” is right around the corner.  Companies should be tuning up their federal business efforts to get them into high gear.  Surprisingly, however, not all companies make the investments they should to promote their solutions and establish themselves as a recognized participant in the federal market.  We’ve said before that companies must commit to federal market participation with both feet, especially considering that this is what their successful competitors do.   While marketing and promotion aren’t the only things successful federal contractors have in common, it is a feature that many share.  Even the best solutions can have trouble getting attention in a crowded market where others more readily promote their brands and presence via advertising, sponsorships, targeted mailings, and similar efforts.  Making the decision to limit marketing, especially now, can put a company behind the curve in terms of achieving business targets.  A company that goes easy on the marketing budget would also be well advised to offset that with a stronger, focused sales approach.  Contractors should have a developed pipeline of potential opportunities that will roll out from now through September 30^th.  Directing sales efforts at that pipeline is essential, especially if other business development efforts are being minimized.  The bottom line is that successful contractors are often those that commit the resources necessary to achieve that success – and do so at the right time.  While it can be difficult for the federal team to get the message across that it’s the federal quarter, not the company’s own, that matters, doing so is important.  It’s remarkable that companies seem to understand business fundamentals for their commercial business, but not federal.  Devoting the resources required for success in each are often the same and can deliver similar results.  Now is the time to make those investments in the federal market so that the “S” on the federal business report card can stand for “Success”. Read more