Idle Your Engines: Feds Instruct Agencies to Stand Down on "Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces"
Client Alert | 1 min read | 10.26.16
On October 25, OFPP issued a Memorandum for Chief Acquisition Officers instructing agencies to refrain from implementing the “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” final rule (which was enjoined by a federal court on October 25, as discussed here) and ensure that “new solicitations do not include representations or clauses that the enjoined coverage of the rule would have required” and that, “[i]f a solicitation has been issued with [the] representations or clauses …, amend those solicitations immediately to remove” them. The memorandum also states that GSA has “halted actions to release the changes for the System for Award Management (SAM) that would support bidder and contractor submission of information on labor law violation decisions” and those that “would support public disclosure of this information in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS).”
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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
