Search results for: supply chain

This post first appeared on Covington’s Global Policy Watch blog on September 7, 2018

Generating and sustaining the United States’ global economic and military superiority over more than the last half century has depended on a dominant U.S. global economic position and perpetual technological innovation. The United States has increasingly…
Continue Reading How Well Do You Know Your Supply Chain? New Policy Developments Affect Defense and Security Contractors

On May 11, 2017, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission (“Commission”) issued a Request for Proposal to “to provide a one-time unclassified report on supply chain vulnerabilities from China in U.S. federal information technology (IT) procurement.”

Congress established the Commission in 2000 to monitor and report to Congress…
Continue Reading USSC Issues RFP For Report On Supply Chain IT Vulnerabilities From China

On October 30, 2015, the Department of Defense (“DoD” or the “Department”) issued a Final Rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (“DFARS”) and clarifying the scope of the DoD’s ability to evaluate and exclude contractors that represent “supply chain risks” in solicitations and contracts involving the development or delivery of IT products and services related to National Security Systems (“NSS”). The Final Rule clarifies that the DoD’s exclusion authority is limited to procurement of NSS, explains that decisions apply on a procurement-by-procurement basis, and removes the flow down requirement that was present in the Interim Rule. The Final Rule also encourages contracting officers to consider imposing a Government consent requirement for all subcontracts.  Our in-depth analysis of the Final Rule is available here.
Continue Reading DoD Issues Final Rule Addressing Exclusion of Contractors that Present Supply Chain Risk in National Security System Procurements

Supply chain protection has been a point of increasing emphasis by the Government and especially the Department of Defense (“DoD”) in recent years. In no area is this more true than ensuring that Government systems and equipment are free from counterfeit electronic parts, which can raise both security and defect concerns. DoD has accordingly taken several steps, many of which have taken the form of new requirements on contractors, to protect against counterfeit electronic parts. With these requirements has come added risk to contractors that even mistakenly use electronic parts in the goods they sell to DoD. However, an August 30, 2016, final DFARS rule (implemented at DFARS 2301.205-71) seeks to mitigate some of this risk by allowing contractors to recover the cost of replacing counterfeit electronic parts, as long as the contractor has taken certain steps to prevent the use of such parts.
Continue Reading DOD Final Rule Addresses Source Requirements and Cost Recovery for Use of Counterfeit Electronic Parts

After failing to be included in the Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) or passed as a standalone piece of legislation, the BIOSECURE Act has moved closer to finally being enacted after it was included in the final FY 2026 NDAA text released by Congress on December 7, 2025.  Section 851 of the FY 2026 NDAA is titled “Prohibition on Contracting with Certain Biotechnology Providers,” but includes in substance what was previously introduced and considered in Congress as the BIOSECURE Act. 

The bill has the potential to impose significant restrictions on the use of certain Chinese companies in the supply chain for products procured by the U.S. Government and accordingly has been of interest to industry over the last few years.  This blog post summarizes the scope of the bill, highlights the changes in the FY 2026 NDAA text as compared to prior iterations of the bill, and flags key considerations for government contractors in the life sciences space.Continue Reading BIOSECURE Act Moves Closer to Enactment with Inclusion in FY 2026 NDAA Text

On November 7, 2025, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth used a speech at the National War College to unveil a Department of War (“DoW”) memorandum titled “Transforming the Defense Acquisition System into the Warfighting Acquisition System to Accelerate Fielding of Urgently Needed Capabilities to Our Warriors.”  This memorandum, referred to throughout as the “WAS Memo”—formally redesignates the Defense Acquisition System (“DAS”) as the Warfighting Acquisition System (“WAS”), places the acquisition enterprise on a “wartime footing,” and sets forth the governance, structural, and process reforms that will shape how DoW capabilities are acquired and fielded. 

This post is the second in a three-part series analyzing these reforms.  In our first post, we examined the WAS Memo’s new emphasis on commercial products and offerings as the preferred acquisition approach.  This post turns to the broader restructuring initiatives contained in the WAS Memo and its accompanying Acquisition Transformation Strategy.Continue Reading From DAS to WAS:  Secretary Hegseth’s Acquisition Overhaul and What It Means for Industry

This is the seventh blog in a series of Covington blogs on cybersecurity policies, executive orders (“EOs”), and other actions of the Trump Administration.  The sixth blog is available here and our initial blog is available here.  This blog describes key cybersecurity developments that took place in August, September…

Continue Reading August, September, and October 2025 Cybersecurity Developments Under the Trump Administration

On October 17, 2025, the General Services Administration (“GSA”) announced that it plans to issue a Mass Modification to GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (“MAS” or “Schedule”) Solicitation[1] and Schedule contracts in November 2025 (“Refresh”).  Periodically, GSA may issue a Mass Modification to Schedule contracts to uniformly impose changes to the contract terms applicable to all Schedule contract holders, often as a result of changes in applicable law, regulation, or policy.  This approach also ensures that existing Schedule contracts have consistent terms, even though with the evergreen nature of the Solicitation those contracts have been entered into at different times and are at different stages of performance.

This Refresh (i.e., Refresh #30) will implement several significant changes with the goal to align the GSA Schedule with recent developments in the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (“RFO”).[2]  Although the full text of the Refresh is not yet available, GSA’s Refresh outline provides insight into the changes that are to come as GSA seeks to gain implementation experience with the RFO clauses, provisions, and ordering procedures through its Schedule contracts.  Given GSA’s leadership of the RFO process, and this year’s Executive Order to consolidate domestic procurement of common goods and services in GSA to the extent permitted by law,[3] it is no surprise that it has acted quickly to revise its long-term government-wide contracting vehicle according to these recent developments. 

Along with the Refresh announcement, GSA opened a 10 business day comment window on buy.gsa.gov, which we expect will close on October 31, 2025.  Schedules contractors will be expected to accept the Refresh no later than 90 days from its release which is expected sometime in November.  Below we discuss relevant background on the RFO process as it relates to the Schedule and anticipated changes to provisions and clauses in the Refresh.  We will continue to watch for updates as GSA’s implementation of the RFO unfolds.    Continue Reading Overhauling the GSA Schedule

This blog post discusses the Department of Defense’s (“DoD”) new cybersecurity rule that imposes certain cybersecurity requirements on relevant DoD contractors and subcontractors. The post will be of interest to all DoD contractors, subcontractors, and possibly affiliates of contractors that may be impacted by the new rule’s cybersecurity requirements.

On…

Continue Reading Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program Procurement Final Rule Announced

Though the 2nd Trump Administration has dramatically turned away from the energy and industrial policies of the Biden Administration, private-sector proponents of advanced energy projects may still find opportunities to partner with the federal government on certain Research and Development (R&D) or commercialization projects in the energy sector. 

Since January 2025, nearly all corners of the federal government have sought to terminate federal grants, loans, and contracts that the Trump Administration has determined are out of step with the government’s revised priorities (such as in the case of various clean energy focused programs or decarbonization initiatives).  Nonetheless, federal agencies have also announced new initiatives providing both financial and non-financial benefits for energy projects that the Trump Administration continues to support.  In particular, there are significant opportunities available for developers of nuclear energy, critical minerals, and geothermal projects, as detailed further below.  Continue Reading Opportunities for Advanced Energy Partnerships in the 2nd Trump Administration