Section 809 Panel Proposes Significant Curtailing of Pre-Award and GAO/COFC Protest Process for Commercial-Item Acquisitions
Client Alert | 1 min read | 03.18.19
Much that has been written about the bid protest reforms in the Section 809 Panel’s final report has focused on Recommendations 66-69, which expressly address (and propose changes to) the protest process at the GAO and the COFC. But the 809 Panel’s most impactful recommended changes to the protest process actually may be contained in Recommendation 35. There, in the context of a discussion of “updating” the DoD’s process for the acquisition of commercial and related items and services, the 809 Panel proposes to eliminate entirely GAO/COFC protests for such acquisitions valued at less than $15 million (and likely many above that threshold as well).
The implementation of Recommendation 35 may have unstated consequences that could ripple across both DoD and civilian agency acquisitions.
Read more here.
Insights
Client Alert | 2 min read | 04.29.25
President Trump Issues Executive Order Deprioritizing Disparate Impact Theory of Discrimination
On April 23, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order, Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy, declaring it the policy of the United States “to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible to avoid violating the constitution, Federal civil rights laws, and basic American ideals.” The order reasons that “disparate impact liability all but requires individuals and businesses to consider race and engage in racial balancing to avoid potentially crippling legal liability.”
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