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Beating Others to the Punch, DHS Proposes CUI Changes to Acquisition Regulations

Client Alert | 1 min read | 02.07.17

On the last full day of the Obama Administration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposed rule that would make several amendments to the Homeland Security Acquisition Regulation (HSAR) regarding Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Despite recent developments, the proposed rule is open for comment until March 20, 2017, and seeks to impose several obligations, including: (1) contractors handling CUI under a contract must be in compliance with a bevy of DHS policies and procedures at the time of contract award; (2) contractors operating federal information systems must meet numerous information security obligations prior to handling CUI on those systems; (3) contractors must report known or suspected incidents affecting CUI within one to eight hours, depending on the type of CUI at issue; and (4) contractors must adhere to specific breach notification and credit monitoring requirements in response to incidents affecting personally identifiable information (PII), a subset of CUI.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25

A Sign of What’s to Come? Court Dismisses FCA Retaliation Complaint Based on Alleged Discriminatory Use of Federal Funding

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....

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