Insights

"Government agency budgets continue to be constricted, and that is increasing the competition for available dollars," says Lorraine Campos, a partner in Crowell & Moring's Government Contracts Group. "Thus we've seen an uptick in the number of bid protests being entered by contractors." According to a report from the Congressional Research Service, total government spending (adjusted for inflation) fell 25 percent between 2008 and 2014, while the total number of protests increased 45 percent. What's more, an increasing percentage of those protests now appear to involve contracts awarded by civilian agencies. "While bid protests have traditionally tended to involve military contractors, we're now seeing more from commercial or civilian contractors," she says.