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Weakened Dollar Causes Further Rise In TAA Thresholds

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 01.04.10

Effective January 1, 2010, the U.S. Trade Representative has revised upward the contract dollar thresholds at which the Buy American Act restriction is waived for the supply of goods and services or construction material from "designated countries" (i.e., those countries that have signed the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement ("GPA") or other free trade agreement with the U.S.) (74 Fed. Reg. 68907, Dec. 29, 2009). Because the GPA thresholds are expressed in "Special Drawing Rights," the USTR adjusts the thresholds biennially and the U.S. dollar's continued weakness has resulted in the third straight increase, to $203,000 for goods and services and $7,804,000 for construction contracts.

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 10.30.26

Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right: GAO Sustains Protest Where Agency Tried to Fix PIA Violation with a Second PIA Violation

Recent sustain decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Fluor Federal Solutions, LLC and Reliance Test & Technology send a clear message: when an agency tries to fix a Procurement Integrity Act (PIA) violation by committing a second one, the cure can be just as fatal as the disease. The cases involved the U.S. Air Force’s $1.8 billion procurement for O&M services at Elgin Air Force Base. During discussions, the Air Force inadvertently released a pricing overview slide with all offerors’ bottom-line evaluated costs to Reliance Test & Technology, which immediately notified the agency of the error. In response, the Air Force decided to level the playing field by providing the same information to all the other offerors in the procurement, stating, “[o]fferors may consider this disclosure in their [final proposal revision].”...