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Flawed Discussions Nixes Award

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 06.11.12

In KPMG LLP (May 21, 2012), GAO sustained a challenge to CIA's conduct of discussions, finding the agency misleadingly informed KPMG that proposals should include resumes for all proposed personnel, yet the awardee proposed – and CIA accepted – only representative resumes, which allowed the awardee to offer a lower cost. GAO also found CIA's cost realism evaluation inadequate, stressing that CIA's evaluation documentation reflected "no meaningful consideration" of whether cost reductions associated with the awardee’s technical approach would actually occur.

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Client Alert | 8 min read | 10.01.25

BIS Issues “Affiliates Rule” to Dramatically Expand Applicability of Entity and Military End-User Lists

On September 29, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced a sweeping Interim Final Rule (IFR), (the “Affiliates Rule”) expanding which entities qualify as Entity List or Military End-User entities, thereby subjecting those entities to elevated export control restrictions under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). U.S. export restrictions applicable to entities on the Entity List, Military End-User (MEU) List, and Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List) now apply to foreign affiliates that are, in the aggregate, owned 50% or more by one or more of the aforementioned entities. An entity that becomes subject to these restrictions because of its ownership structure will be subject to the most restrictive controls that attach to any of its parent entities, regardless of ownership stakes....