GSA’s Office of Acquisition Policy issued an Acquisition Letter Friday clarifying that, under specific conditions, upfront payment can be made for the acquisition of cloud-based commercial item software. GSA’s guidance should result in lower prices and enhanced competition for covered software acquisitions. There had previously been disagreement among government agencies on whether acquiring cloud-based software on a subscription basis qualified for existing subscription-based exemptions in the FAR. The Acquisition Letter, dated March 15th and titled “Guidance on Payment for Software Licenses Delivered via SaaS” Read more
Government contractors should resist the urge to indulge in schadenfreude (perhaps the best German word ever) over troubles incurred by Boeing, Raytheon, and other large contractors. The simple fact of the matter is that the information age means that the actions of every contractor are under scrutiny and that companies need to ensure that they act accordingly to stay on the right path. It’s not just large companies, either. Ever heard of Envistacom LLC or HX5 LLC? The Department of Justice has. Each of these small companies was recently the target of monetary recoveries in the range of $8 million. The financial stakes for larger, public companies are greater and not just because fines from the government could be higher. Boeing’s stock price, for example, is currently trading near its 52-week low. While not all their problems are government contract related, the fact that the F-35 is going into production six Read more
Congress passed the first six FY’24 appropriations bills late last week after intensive work to finalize all spending details. Funding for the Departments of Veteran Affairs, Transportation, Energy, Agriculture, and HUD is now in place. This first “minibus” measure also includes funding for military construction and water projects. In the meantime, progress continues to be made on the second six bills that comprise 80% of all federal discretionary spending. Appropriators believe that they are very close to an agreement on defense spending, with the Labor appropriations bill close behind. The Labor-HHS-Education funding measures, the largest for Read more
Nearly 33% fewer small businesses participate in the government market today compared to FY’14 according to information released last week by Bloomberg Government. While agencies, particularly DOD, state that they want more small firms to participate, the proliferation of special, government-only rules has had the net impact of driving many such businesses to the federal market sidelines (see article below). The simple fact of the matter is that businesses of any size that succeed in the government market today are those that specialize in doing so. Read more
The federal contracting market is shaped by events both small and large. Here are three things that were reported this week that you might have missed but should not have.
1. New York Court Upholds Contractor Teaming Agreement: While many district courts view contractor teaming agreements as “agreements to agree” and, as such, are not enforceable, a federal court in New York court recently held that CTA’s can be enforced in New York if they meet one of two criteria. The first type is where the parties agree on all the points that require Read more