GAO Faults USTRANSCOM’s Past Performance Evaluation of Awardee’s “Miniscule” Past Work
Client Alert | 1 min read | 04.03.17
In XPO Logistics Worldwide Gov’t Servs., LLC (released Mar. 21, 2017), in which C&M co-represented XPO, GAO sustained a protest challenging the awardee’s past performance rating, setting aside USTRANSCOM’s award of a $3B freight services contract. GAO found that the value of the awardee’s past efforts are extremely small relative to the value of the requirement, that the contemporaneous record did not explain the basis for the agency’s determination that these tiny past efforts were somewhat relevant under the solicitation, and that the agency’s post hoc reevaluation during the protest was unreasonable. GAO recommended that the agency reevaluate the awardee’s past performance and then make a new award decision.
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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
