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ASBCA Holds that Transmission Emails are "Part of the Same Transaction" as Mods for Plain Meaning Purposes

Client Alert | 1 min read | 05.24.19

Can contractors reserve rights in a transmission email while executing a contract modification that is silent on such reservation? The ASBCA recently affirmed again that yes, contractors can. In NMS Management, Inc., ASBCA No. 61519 (Apr. 11, 2019), a dispute over the “improper attempt at a partial exercise” of an option period, the ASBCA rejected the Government’s argument that NMS was strictly bound by the terms of a signed bilateral modification – viewed in isolation – because NMS’s accompanying transmission email stated that it was signing under protest. The ASBCA clarified the plain meaning rule by citing precedent that the “interpretation of a contract as a whole requires consideration of all documents that are part of the same transaction together.” The Board held that “the [transmission] email dispels any notion that Modification No. P00011 is the only writing to consider when evaluating the legal consequences of the modification.”

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Client Alert | 5 min read | 03.30.26

Firewall Up: FCC Bars Foreign-Made Routers in New Covered List Update

On March 23, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) updated its Covered List—a list of communications equipment and services deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security or the safety and security of U.S. persons—to include consumer-grade routers produced in a foreign country, absent an exemption granted by the U.S. Departments of War (DoW) or Homeland Security (DHS). This designation effectively prohibits the import of all consumer routers that are not produced in the United States....

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