Protests continue to plague large Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) programs.  While GSA is not the only agency to see the impact of protests, two of its higher-profile acquisition programs are now delayed because of them.  Most recently, the OASIS+ program has been hit with seven GAO protests over decisions to award, or not, contracts to certain companies on the OASIS+ small business contract.  The only good news there is that there appears not to be any protests at the Court of Federal Claims, meaning that resolution could be faster and the program allowed to move forward once the known protest issues are addressed. The GSA POLARIS program, however, has seen no updates for a little over six months, other than “it’s coming”.  This acquisition initiative has been hit hard by protests, especially those brought at the claims court as that venue has none of the time restrictions at GAO.  The official Interact website, however, still promises that awards will be made in FY’24, though there is little more than a month left to meet that timeframe.  It is likely that POLARIS will be met with the same sort of post-award protests that have already befallen OASIS+.  In the meantime, work continues apace on the Alliant3 IT services GWAC.  The question period for that contract ended at the start of August and the Alliant3 team may actually have benefitted from NASA SEWP VI troubles since every agency is now on notice that industry would very much like to have the majority of their questions answered before a procurement moves forward.  Right now, it seems as if OASIS+ will actually be able to have issued an RFP, dealt with protests, and been able to move forward with awards before POLARIS can get off the starting blocks.  The next fiscal year could indeed be one where protests again make or break GWAC’s at GSA and elsewhere.  Stay tuned.