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Defense Contractors Begin To Feel Effect Of DoD Requirement To Provide Unique Item Identifiers And Unit Cost Information

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 02.09.04

Many DoD contractors are recognizing the potential burden of a recent DoD clause compelling contractors to mark deliverable hardware valued in excess of $5,000 with a machine-readable, unique identification sufficient to last throughout the life of the hardware. The new DoD clause, included in solicitations issued starting January 1, 2004, can also require the same type of marking for subassemblies, components, and parts embedded within the hardware and further requires contractors to furnish the Government's unit acquisition cost, which in the case of fixed-price items is simply the unit price and in cost-type contracts is an estimate of the fully burdened unit cost at the time of delivery.

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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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