Commerce Proposes Updates To Reauthorized Defense Production Act
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 06.14.10
On June 7, 2010, the Department of Commerce issued a proposed rule implementing 2009 legislation to reauthorize and improve the Defense Production Act. In addition to reauthorizing the use by designated federal agencies of priority ratings on contracts or orders, requiring contractors (and potentially their subcontractors and vendors) to give priority to those contracts or orders over other contracts or orders, the proposed rule "clarifies" the standards and procedures for issuing a rated contract/order and establishes new procedures by which an agency may allocate scarce materials, services, and facilities to promote the national defense or to respond to a national emergency.
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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
