Interest Due On Indirect Cost Claims
Client Alert | 1 min read | 10.21.11
In SRI Int'l (Oct. 5, 2011), the ASBCA addressed for the first time in a comprehensive way the payment of contractor certified claims and Contract Disputes Act interest related to disputes about allowable indirect costs. In clarifying its original decision holding that the indirect costs at issue were allowable, the Board held that recovery of the principal amount of the contractor’s claim must be accomplished through the normal indirect cost rates, not in a lump sum, and that the contractor is entitled to recover interest on the amount due on the principal amounts actually paid beginning on the date the certified claim was submitted until payment of the indirect costs was made on each contract that was covered by the claim, apparently with that interest to be paid separately to the contractor, leaving it to the parties on remand to determine how that separate payment will be accomplished.
Insights
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
