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DoD Advances Proposed Rule on Enhanced Debriefings

Client Alert | 1 min read | 05.24.21

On May 20, 2021, the FAR Council issued a proposed Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) rule on post-award debriefings that largely codifies—and in a number of ways bolsters—the existing enhanced post-award debriefing rules established by the Department of Defense’s (DoD) March 22, 2018 Class Deviation on Enhanced Postaward Debriefing Rights.  The proposed rule requires that the awarding agency provide an oral or written debriefing, when requested, for all contracts, task orders, and delivery orders valued in excess of $10 million.  The rule further augments the DFARS clause on DoD debriefings, requiring (1) debriefings to include a redacted version of the source selection decision document (SSDD) for all awards in excess of $100 million; and (2) the option for a small business or nontraditional defense contractor to request a redacted version of the SSDD for contract awards between $10 million and $100 million.  And as with DoD’s Class Deviation, if an offeror submits additional questions in response to the initial debriefing within two business days of being debriefed, the debriefing shall not close until the agency responds to those questions.  Under those circumstances, the protester’s clock for filing a protest at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) (including the five-day window in which to file and obtain the Competition in Contracting Act’s automatic stay of performance) does not begin to run until such time as the agency provides its response.  If no questions are posed, the protest timelines are unchanged.

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Client Alert | 4 min read | 08.07.25

File First, Facts Later? Eleventh Circuit Says That Discovery Can Inform False Claims Act Allegations in Amended Complaints

On July 25, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in United States ex. rel. Sedona Partners LLC v. Able Moving & Storage Inc. et al., holding that a district court cannot ignore new factual allegations included in an amended complaint filed by a False Claims Act qui tam relator based on the fact that those additional facts were learned in discovery, even while a motion to dismiss for failure to comply with the heightened pleading standard under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) is pending.  Under Rule 9(b), allegations of fraud typically must include factual support showing the who, what, where, why, and how of the fraud to survive a defendant’s motion to dismiss.  And while that standard has not changed, Sedona gives room for a relator to file first and seek out discovery in order to amend an otherwise deficient complaint and survive a motion to dismiss, at least in the Eleventh Circuit.  Importantly, however, the Eleventh Circuit clarified that a district court retains the discretion to dismiss a relator’s complaint before or after discovery has begun, meaning that district courts are not required to permit discovery at the pleading stage.  Nevertheless, the Sedona decision is an about-face from precedent in the Eleventh Circuit, and many other circuits, where, historically, facts learned during discovery could not be used to circumvent Rule 9(b) by bolstering a relator’s factual allegations while a motion to dismiss was pending.  While the long-term effects of the decision remain to be seen, in the short term the decision may encourage relators to engage in early discovery in hopes of learning facts that they can use to survive otherwise meritorious motions to dismiss....