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GAO Sustains For Failure To Set Aside For Small Business

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 10.20.04

In Information Ventures, Inc. (Oct. 8, 2004), GAO sustained a pre-award protest of an unrestricted procurement because the agency failed to take reasonable efforts to ascertain whether at least two small businesses were capable of performing the work, and, in fact, that the agency ignored known information that there were at least two small businesses that could have done so. Lesson learned from this case is that small businesses should carefully monitor the issuance of unrestricted procurements and object prior to the submission of proposals (due to strict GAO timeliness rules) if they believe that multiple small business are capable of performing the work.

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Client Alert | 8 min read | 10.01.25

BIS Issues “Affiliates Rule” to Dramatically Expand Applicability of Entity and Military End-User Lists

On September 29, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced a sweeping Interim Final Rule (IFR), (the “Affiliates Rule”) expanding which entities qualify as Entity List or Military End-User entities, thereby subjecting those entities to elevated export control restrictions under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). U.S. export restrictions applicable to entities on the Entity List, Military End-User (MEU) List, and Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List) now apply to foreign affiliates that are, in the aggregate, owned 50% or more by one or more of the aforementioned entities. An entity that becomes subject to these restrictions because of its ownership structure will be subject to the most restrictive controls that attach to any of its parent entities, regardless of ownership stakes....