Insights

A wave of recent changes in federal and state law pertaining to PFAS chemicals is likely to present both immediate and long-term challenges to the government contracting community. At the federal level, contractors that import products, parts, packaging, equipment or other articles with components that contain PFAS must confront new and extensive regulatory reporting requirements relating to such imports going back to 2011, and they must do so by May 2025. At the state level, a growing list of states are enacting total bans on the sale and distribution of such products and components. On top of this flurry of environmental regulatory activity, the Biden Administration continues to direct federal agencies to develop procurement strategies that prioritize the purchase of PFAS-free articles as part the Administration’s broader effort to leverage the federal procurement function in pursuit of climate and sustainability policy objectives.

Offerors understand that missing a submission deadline can sink even the best proposal because “late is late.”  But what happens when an offeror timely emails its proposal only to have an agency server reject it without any notification to the offeror?  GAO’s recent decision in Guidehouse, Inc., B-422115.2, Jan. 19, 2024, says that the proposal is still late and emphasizes the potentially draconian impact of the “late is late” rule.

Crowell & Moring will address individually small business size and each status that can be claimed in federal government contracting. We’ll cover: the eligibility requirements for each status; the certification process (if any); discussion of regulatory and statutory changes as well as any significant caselaw from 2021; and coming developments in 2022.

Join us for a webinar discussion of some of the big bid protest issues to watch in the coming year – both at GAO and the Court of Federal Claims. Our discussion will cover the following key areas:

Crowell & Moring’s “All Things Protest” podcast keeps you up to date on major trends in bid protest litigation, key developments in high-profile cases, and best practices in state and federal procurement. In this episode, host Christian Curran and guests Zachary Schroeder and Issac Schabes discuss two rare protest sustains—one from GAO involving a successful challenge to the scope of corrective action, and the other from the Court of Federal Claims finding that the agency abused its discretion in not allowing the protester to fix a minor proposal error through clarifications.