President Obama Follows States’ Lead in Establishing Paid Sick Leave
While you were soaking in the final days of summer this Labor Day, President Obama used the occasion to sign Executive Order (EO), “Establishing Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors.” The EO provides that, beginning on January 1, 2017, executive agencies include a provision in new contracts, contract-like instruments and solicitations, requiring Federal Contractors provide 1 hour of sick leave for ever 30 hours worked by an employee. The EO tasks the Secretary of Labor with issuing regulations on or before September 30, 2016. Contractors can expect . . . Read More
The Mandatory Disclosure Rule – Demystifying Your Disclosure Requirements
By Katie Flood It’s that gut-check scenario: You realize that your company has made a mistake on an invoice submitted on a government contract, or that your company has mistakenly represented its size or socioeconomic status. Regardless of what shape the mistake has taken, you are wondering how best to limit your company’s potential exposure. You also wonder, as a small business, what exactly you are required to disclose to the government. This is where the Mandatory Disclosure Rule (MDR) . . . Read More
Five Signs Your Teaming Agreement Will Lead to Affiliation
Teaming agreements are valuable tools for all government contractors. They allow the proposed prime contractor and subcontractor to iron out their relationship prior to competing for a government opportunity. Teaming relationships themselves are particularly important to small business contractors who are trying to grow their portfolio, but may need the insight of an experienced subcontractor. However, small business primes teamed with large subcontractors on set-aside contracts are chief targets for size protests. Therefore, all small business primes must ensure that . . . Read More
“Fair Pay” Rules Just Aren’t Fair
Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) recently submitted comments on proposed regulations that would require federal contractors to disclose labor violations from the past three years. This blog accompanies those comments as a summary of WIPP’s position. For more details or if this impacts your business, I encourage you to read the full comment here . Last summer, President Obama issued an Executive Order with the goal of barring bad companies from winning federal contracts. WIPP, along with most in the contracting community, agrees . . . Read More
A Refresher on the Non-Manufacturer Rule
By Katie Flood Unless you are a small business regularly engaged in selling supplies to the U.S. Government, you may have only a passing familiarity with the requirements of the Non-Manufacturer Rule (NMR). The NMR is an exception to the usual requirement that contractors supplying goods to the government perform at least 50 percent of the cost of manufacturing the items. A manufacturer is a business concern that, with its own facilities, performs primary activities in transforming organic or inorganic . . . Read More
“March-in” Rights – The (Paper) Damoclean Sword of Federal Procurement Patent Law
Given the recent PilieroMazza webinar on Data Rights in federal contracting , we have had a number of clients raise concerns or questions about the government’s “march-in” rights under the Bayh-Dole Act, which controls certain data rights and patent issues under federal contracts. For those of you who do not already know, for patentable items created under federally-funded contracts, the government has the right to force the contractor who holds the patent to issue a license to third parties, including competitors, under certain conditions. As we will see, . . . Read More
Not So Far Out: OMB Memo Indicates Cybersecurity FAR Clauses Are Coming Soon
On August 11, 2015, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) released a draft policy memo entitled “Improving Cybersecurity Protections in Federal Acquisitions.” The purpose of the memo is to provide federal agencies with guidance to implement stronger cybersecurity protections in federal acquisitions for products or services that generate, collect, maintain, disseminate, store, or provide access to Controlled Unclassified Information (“CUI”). OMB is seeking public comments and suggested revisions by September 10, 2015, and expects to issue the final guidance . . . Read More
Letter of Intent: A Seller’s Friend or Foe?
For a business owner, the sale of the company is the final act in the life cycle of the company (TargetCo). It represents the business owner’s opportunity to cash out on and be rewarded for his or her vision, ingenuity, years of hard work, sacrifice and risk-taking. Typically, after some confidential discussions and limited sharing of a TargetCo’s financial and non-financial information, a critical, next step in the sale process is negotiating and entering into a letter of intent (LOI) . . . Read More
Claims Webinar Series: Contract Terminations
Presented by: Jon Williams and Michelle Litteken.
No Longer on Hold: SBA Resumes 7(a) Lending to Small Businesses
The 7(a) lending program is back on track. Last month, President Obama signed into law a bill that would raise the SBA’s lending authorization ceiling to $23.5 billion for its flagship lending program. With the bill’s signing, the SBA resumed loan approvals and small businesses are again able to get loans backed by the federal government. On July 23, 2015—just a few days before the president put pen to paper—the SBA maxed out its $18.75 billion lending limit for small . . . Read More