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Commerce Proposes Updates To Reauthorized Defense Production Act

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 06.14.10

On June 7, 2010, the Department of Commerce issued a proposed rule implementing 2009 legislation to reauthorize and improve the Defense Production Act. In addition to reauthorizing the use by designated federal agencies of priority ratings on contracts or orders, requiring contractors (and potentially their subcontractors and vendors) to give priority to those contracts or orders over other contracts or orders, the proposed rule "clarifies" the standards and procedures for issuing a rated contract/order and establishes new procedures by which an agency may allocate scarce materials, services, and facilities to promote the national defense or to respond to a national emergency.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 04.14.26

DOJ’s False Claims Act Resolution Against IBM Signals Heightened Risk for Federal Contractors with DEI Programs

On Friday, April 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has agreed to pay just over $17 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by failing to comply with federal anti-discrimination requirements incorporated into its federal contracts due to allegedly discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) employment practices. This resolution marks the first FCA settlement secured by the DOJ under its Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, created in May 2025, and announced by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as part of the administration’s coordinated efforts to target allegedly unlawful DEI practices. Per the agreement, the settlement is neither an admission of liability by IBM nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded....