Government Contracts Regulatory Compliance

During his first eight weeks in office, President Trump has taken numerous executive actions likely to impact federal government contractors and grant recipients.  This timeline highlights key developments pertaining to recent executive orders (“EOs”) and other executive actions issued by the second Trump administration.  It focuses on issues most relevant to federal contractors and grant recipients, and is divided into five topics: (1) Federal Funding; (2) DEI and Gender; (3) Energy and Environment; (4) Trade and Foreign Aid; and (5) DOGE and Federal Workforce.  Covington’s Government Contracts Practice is continuing to track these and other developments and will plan to periodically update this timeline.

This timeline provides a high-level summary of recent events and is not exhaustive. In addition, this timeline was last updated on the date provided above.  To the extent you may have questions regarding any of the developments discussed below — or other matters — please reach out to a member of Covington’s Government Contracts Practice.Continue Reading Timeline of Key Developments Related to Recent Executive Actions as of March 19, 2025

On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress, and highlighted many of the actions his administration has taken during his first six weeks in office.  This timeline highlights key developments pertaining to recent executive orders (“EOs”) and other executive actions issued by the second Trump administration.  It focuses on issues most relevant to federal contractors and grant recipients, and is divided into five topics: (1) Federal Funding; (2) DEI and Gender; (3) Energy and Environment; (4) Trade and Foreign Aid; and (5) DOGE and Federal Workforce.  Covington’s Government Contracts Practice is continuing to track these and other developments and will plan to periodically update this timeline.

This document provides a high-level summary of recent events and is not exhaustive. In addition, this document was last updated on the date provided above.  To the extent you may have questions regarding any of the developments discussed below — or other matters — please reach out to a member of Covington’s Government Contracts Practice.Continue Reading Timeline of Key Developments Related to Recent Executive Actions as of March 12, 2025

On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress, and highlighted many of the actions his administration has taken during his first six weeks in office.  This timeline highlights key developments pertaining to recent executive orders (“EOs”) and other executive actions issued by the second Trump administration.  It focuses on issues most relevant to federal contractors and grant recipients, and is divided into five topics: (1) Federal Funding; (2) DEI and Gender; (3) Energy and Environment; (4) Trade and Foreign Aid; and (5) DOGE and Federal Workforce.  Covington’s Government Contracts Practice is continuing to track these and other developments and will plan to periodically update this timeline.

This post provides a high-level summary of recent events and is not exhaustive. In addition, this document was last updated on the date provided above.  To the extent you may have questions regarding any of the developments discussed below — or other matters — please reach out to a member of Covington’s Government Contracts Practice.Continue Reading Timeline of Key Developments Related to Recent Executive Actions as of March 5, 2025

Update: On March 14, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order, “Additional Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions,” which revoked Executive Order 14026, discussed below. The U.S. Department of Labor has stated it is “no longer enforcing Executive Order 14026 or the implementing rule (29 CFR part 23) and will take steps, including rescinding 29 CFR part 23, to implement and effectuate the revocation of Executive Order 14026.” We will continue to monitor further developments.

Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of a Biden administration order raising the minimum wage of many types of federal contract workers.  The executive order remains subject to litigation (in both the Fifth Circuit and elsewhere), but is currently effective throughout the country, with a narrow exception for certain state agencies. 

President Biden’s Executive Order 14026 (“the EO”), issued in April 2021, raised the hourly minimum wage to $15.00 for federal contract workers for the following contract types:

  • Procurement contracts for construction projects covered by the Davis-Bacon Act (“DBA”);
  • Service contracts falling under the Service Contract Act (“SCA”);
  • Concessions contracts, including those excluded from the SCA by DOL regulations at 29 C.F.R. 4.133(b); and,
  • Contracts related to federal property or lands and connected to providing services for federal employees, their dependents, or the general public.

EO 14026 directs the U.S. Department of Labor to annually update the hourly minimum wage.  We wrote in October 2024 about DOL’s annual update effective January 1, 2025, which raised the minimum wage for covered contracts from $17.20 to $17.75.  More details are below.Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Adds New Wrinkle to Ongoing Fight Over Federal Contract Worker Minimum Wage Requirement

As previously discussed on this blog, President Trump issued several executive orders (“EOs”) and memoranda, many of which may have implications for federal contractors and grant recipients.  During the first 30 days of the second Trump Administration, Covington’s Government Contracts Practice Group has tracked developments related to these EOs…

Continue Reading Timeline of Key Developments Related to Recent Executive Actions

Last month, DeepSeek, an AI start-up based in China, grabbed headlines with claims that its latest large language AI model, DeepSeek-R1, could perform on par with more expensive and market-leading AI models despite allegedly requiring less than $6 million dollars’ worth of computing power from older and less-powerful chips.  Although…

Continue Reading U.S. Federal and State Governments Moving Quickly to Restrict Use of DeepSeek

The FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) sustains Congress’s continued focus on countering China’s expanding influence and enhancing U.S. resilience in an era of great power competition.  This year’s legislation reflects the practice of carrying the State Department and Intelligence Authorization Acts within the NDAA—marking the third consecutive year that these critical measures have been advanced in tandem.  The Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees in both chambers of Congress have increasingly adopted the Armed Services Committees’ playbook, embedding China-focused legislation modeled on past defense measures in their respective authorizations.  This blog examines key provisions designed to address what Congress views as strategic challenges posed by China while closing loopholes that could confer military, economic, or technological advantages to Beijing.  We divide these provisions into the following five categories:  (1) provisions that address potential security risks linked to Chinese-origin technology; (2) provisions that limit the transfer of U.S. technology or data to China; (3) so-called “time to choose” provisions that curtail Department of Defense (“DoD”) engagement with third parties that engage with China; (4) provisions that tackle a range of broader geopolitical concerns; and (5) studies and reports to identify emerging issues and concerns.
Continue Reading FY2025 NDAA: Congressional Efforts to Bolster U.S. Resilience Against Chinese Tech and Influence

On January 14, 2025, the Department of Transportation’s (“DOT”) Federal Highway Administration (“FHWA”) published a final rule ending its longstanding waiver of Buy America requirements for manufactured products (the “Manufactured Products Waiver”) and setting out new standards for the use of domestic content on FHWA-funded infrastructure projects.  As discussed in our previous post, FHWA proposed rescinding its decades-old waiver in March 2024 in accordance with the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Build America, Buy America (“BABA”) focus on expanding Buy America coverage and discouraging the use of general applicability waivers.  The final rule is similar in substance to the proposed rule but adds a staggered implementation period, which will allow contractors additional time to come into compliance.Continue Reading Federal Highway Administration Publishes Final Rule Rescinding Longstanding Buy America Waiver for Manufactured Products

Yesterday, the FAR Council issued a proposed rule that would update the U.S. Government’s approach to organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs).  While the proposed rule is not finalized and may change in response to forthcoming comments from interested parties, the proposed rule contemplates major changes to the FAR’s existing framework in this area.  In this post, we summarize the background leading up to the proposed rule and highlight key areas of proposed change.

Background

Continue Reading The Proposed FAR Rule on OCIs: Big Changes May Be Coming

This is part of an ongoing series of Covington blogs on the implementation of Executive Order No. 14110 on the “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” (the “AI EO”), issued by President Biden on October 30, 2023.  The first blog summarized the AI EO’s key provisions and related OMB guidance, and subsequent blogs described the actions taken by various government agencies to implement the AI EO from November 2023 through October 2024.  This blog describes key actions taken to implement the AI EO during November 2024 and potential implications of the 2024 U.S. election.  We will discuss developments during November 2024 to implement President Biden’s 2021 Executive Order on Cybersecurity in a separate post. Continue Reading November 2024 Developments Under President Biden’s AI Executive Order