Awardee's Reliance on Incumbent Employee Who Had Never Been Contacted Constitutes a Material Misrepresentation of Proposed Staff
Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.07.20
In T3I Sols., LLC, GAO sustained a post-award protest challenging an Air Force award for courseware and training services finding that the awardee materially misrepresented its available workforce by proposing an incumbent employee without contacting that employee in advance of proposal submission or obtaining permission to include him as part of the awardee’s proposed team. The agency relied on the awardee’s representations regarding this employee and his qualifications in finding the awardee technically acceptable. GAO rejected the argument that there was no misrepresentation because the solicitation did not require commitment letters or employee representations. GAO further explained that the awardee’s “hope or belief” that it would be able to offer incumbent employees was not sufficient to represent commitment without more.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
