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Agency Failure to Consider Proposal Differences Invalidates Award

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 07.06.11

In One Largo Metro LLC (June 20, 2011), GAO sustained three protests to a best value procurement for office space for HHS when GSA evaluated one of the technical subfactors in a manner inconsistent with the solicitation and failed to consider meaningfully the evaluated differences in the proposals. Regarding the latter protest ground, the source selection official, by disregarding the recommendations of the lower-level evaluators without explanation, did not conduct a well documented, meaningful consideration of the identified technical differences between the proposals and instead based her decision on a mechanical comparison of the subfactor ratings assigned by the lower-level evaluators.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25

A Sign of What’s to Come? Court Dismisses FCA Retaliation Complaint Based on Alleged Discriminatory Use of Federal Funding

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....

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