November 2023 Bid Protest Roundup
- This month's protest spotlight highlights three decisions by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The decisions feature arguments that unsuccessful offerors often want to make, but that are rarely successful, as well as two arguments that some will be surprised did not succeed. Matter of:... ›
October 2023 Bid Protest Roundup: Instructions, Jurisdiction, Scrutiny
By: Michaela E. Thornton
This month, we feature three bid protest decisions—two from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) and one from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”). Though each of these decisions focuses on a different fundamental point of procurement law, all share a common theme: they... ›September 2023 Bid Protest Roundup: Limits to Agency Discretion in Challenge to NAICS Code Assignments, Confines of the Close-at-Hand Principle
By: Roke Iko
This month’s Bid Protest Roundup focuses on a recent U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision involving the limitations of the government’s deference defense and a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that involved the proper application and discretionary nature of the so-called close-at-hand principle. Consolidated... ›Timeliness Traps: Adverse Action Before Receipt of a Written Agency-Level Protest Decision
By: James A. Tucker
In the right circumstances, an agency-level protest can be a quick and efficient way to address certain procurement errors, as we discussed a few years ago. One downside of agency‑level protests, however, is their potential for creating doubt or confusion about the deadline for... ›August 2023 Bid Protest Roundup: Former Government Employees; Buy American Act Waivers
By: James A. Tucker
This month’s bid protest roundup looks at two GAO protests from August. One examines the risks of using former federal employees to assist with proposal development when their prior access to non-public information might provide an unfair competitive advantage. The second decision considers the restrictions imposed... ›July 2023 Bid Protest Roundup: Personnel Loss, Conflicts, Timeliness
By: Locke Bell
This month’s bid protest roundup highlights two decisions from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (“Court”), one addressing an offeror’s loss of key personnel and a second addressing organizational conflicts of interest (“OCIs”) arising out of an offeror’s reliance on former government employees in... ›June 2023 Bid Protest Roundup: Errors, Experience, Corrective Action
By: Krista A. Nunez
This month’s bid protest roundup focuses on two decisions from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (“Court”) and one decision from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”). These decisions involve (1) the Court’s determination that, based on the facts, inconsistencies in an offeror’s proposed labor... ›Hard Validations and Cutlines: What Happened on CIO-SP4?
By: James A. Tucker and Damien C. Specht
If you’ve been following the saga of the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center’s (NITAAC) Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners (CIO-SP4) procurement, you likely know the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued two decisions sustaining post-award protests by 91 unsuccessful... ›Pratt’s Government Contracting Law Report: Key Considerations for Litigating Classified Bid Protests
By: Kevin P. Mullen, Sandeep N. Nandivada, James A. Tucker and Caitlin A. Crujido
Kevin Mullen, Sandeep Nandivada, James Tucker, and Caitlin Crujido authored an article for Pratt's Government Contracting Law Report sharing 10 factors to consider when contemplating a classified protest. "Find a law firm with a sufficient number of experienced bid protest lawyers with the requisite... ›Clarifying Minor Errors: The Court Makes an Agency Seek a Clarification
By: James A. Tucker
Offerors whose proposals are disqualified for immaterial typographical and data input errors will want to read an interesting new protest decision from the Court of Federal Claims. In Aspire Therapy Services & Consultants, Inc. v. United States , the Court sustained a protest because the... ›