TSA Back Under The Thumb off FAR and CICA
Client Alert | 1 min read | 02.27.08
After a 6-year holiday from fundamental procurement laws for overseeing federal agencies and assuring due process and fairness for contractors, the Transportation Security Administration as of June 23, 2008, must once again comply with FAR requirements and CICA competition rules, as well as defend itself in protests before GAO and contract disputes before the Board of Contract Appeals. Following two years of legislative effort by Senators Kerry and Snowe and August 2007 hearings by the House Homeland Security Committee, Congress included a little-noticed, cryptic, two-sentence provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 (Pub. L. No. 110-161, Div. E, Title V, Section 568) stripping TSA of its statutory exemption and requiring TSA to follow the same acquisition laws and regulations governing nearly all other federal agencies.
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
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.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
