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Weeding Out Bad Contractors -- The Government's Push to Enhance its Suspension and Debarment Function

Client Alert | 1 min read | 11.17.11

On November 15, 2011, the head of OMB, Jacob Lew, issued a memorandum requiring the heads of executive departments and agencies to increase management attention on suspension and debarment, consistent with the policies and procedures in the FAR. On the heels of the OMB memorandum, the U.S. Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs convened hearings on November 16 on "Weeding Out Bad Contractors," which featured testimony from, among others, Daniel Gordon, the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy; David Sims, the Chair of the ISDC; and Steven Shaw, the Air Force’s debarment and suspension official.

For further analysis and links to the OMB Memo and Congressional testimony, click here for a related blog post by Daniel Forman.

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Client Alert | 2 min read | 07.15.26

CMMC Phase II Suspension Requires Reconsideration of Such Requirements in Solicitations

As discussed in more detail here, the U.S. Department of War (DoW) recently issued a memorandum (Memo 26-P-1023, dated July 13, 2026) directing the immediate suspension of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Phase II requirements. Significantly, the memo directs that “all pending and future CMMC implementation milestones across DoW solicitations and contracts are held in abeyance until further notice.” Moreover, the DoW issued a memorandum on implementing these requirements (available here), directing agencies to issue amendments removing CMMC Level 2 and 3 requirements from active solicitations “as soon as practicable.” Contractors should monitor the government’s compliance with this requirement and should be prepared, if needed, to file a bid protest to protect their rights....

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