1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |Contractor’s Unwaivable CDA Right to Board Review

Contractor’s Unwaivable CDA Right to Board Review

Client Alert | 1 min read | 12.05.17

In Ikhana, LLC (ASBCA Nos. 60462 et al., Oct. 18, 2017), the Board held that a contractor’s right to CDA appeal cannot be indirectly waived by an assignment of the underlying claims to a surety. Following a termination for default, Ikhana appealed several previously submitted claims (deemed denied). The surety and the Government, believing that Ikhana had assigned those claims to the surety, brokered a settlement agreement to withdraw those appeals and finish performance. The Board held that, regardless of whether Ikhana had assigned its claims, an assignment cannot indirectly “waive” a contractor’s statutory right to Board review under the CDA. The Board distinguished its earlier decision in Safeco Ins. Co. of Am. (ASBCA No. 52107), which upheld a surety’s right to appeal assigned claims while the government attempted to nullify the contractor’s assignment because––critically––the contractor in Safeco was uninterested in pursuing that appeal.

Insights

Client Alert | 4 min read | 05.01.26

Federal Court Blocks Trump Administration Policies Restricting Wind and Solar Permitting

A coalition of regional clean energy trade associations — including RENEW Northeast, Alliance for Clean Energy New York, Southern Renewable Energy Association, and Interwest Energy Alliance — along with the Green Energy Consumers Alliance (GECA), filed suit in December 2025 against the Department of the Interior (DOI), the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Army Corps of Engineers. The complaint alleged that five agency actions, issued in response to a series of executive orders and presidential memoranda beginning on January 20, 2025, violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by arbitrarily halting or restricting federal permitting for wind and solar energy projects. Plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of these policies while the litigation proceeds. See Renew Northeast, et al. v. U.S. Dep’t of Interior, et al., No. 25-cv-13961-DJC,  (D. Mass. Apr. 21, 2026) ECF Dkt. 89....