GAO Bid Protest Statistics for FY2019
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 11.08.19
On November 5, 2019, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) released its Annual Report on Bid Protests for Fiscal Year 2019. GAO received and sustained slightly fewer protests than in FY2018, but the overall Effectiveness Rate—i.e., the percentage of time the protester received relief, such as voluntary corrective action or GAO sustaining its protest—held steady at 44%. The most common bases for sustained protests in FY2019 were (1) unreasonable technical evaluations; (2) inadequate documentation of agency records; (3) flawed selection decisions; (4) unequal treatment of offerors; and (5) unreasonable cost or price evaluations.
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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
