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Tough (Tax) Break: Federal Tax Delinquency and Felony Convictions Could Bar Corporations from Awards

Client Alert | 1 min read | 10.05.16

The FAR Council published a final rule on September 30 that, effective immediately, adopts an interim rule that requires any corporation responding to a federal solicitation to represent whether it has (1) any unpaid federal tax liability that has been assessed and is not being appealed or paid in a timely manner or (2) a felony conviction under any federal law within the preceding 24 months. As further explained here, any affirmative disclosure would create an automatic bar against contract award, unless the agency’s suspension and debarment official has considered the matter and determined that further action is not necessary to protect the government’s interests.

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Client Alert | 2 min read | 09.22.25

Department of Education Discontinues Discretionary Grant Funding for Minority-Serving Institutions

The Department of Education (DOE) announced on September 10, 2025, that it will end discretionary funding to several Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) grant programs that, it stated, “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.”[1] The agency stated that it would “us[e] its statutory authority to reprogram discretionary funds to programs that do not present such concerns.”[2] This announcement follows a July 2025 decision by the Department of Justice to no longer defend the constitutionality of a provision of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) that authorizes grant funding to Hispanic-Serving institutions, after determining that such programs “violate the equal-protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.”[3]...