Bid Protest

On December 12, 2025, GAO released its Bid Protest Annual Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2025, which provides bid protest statistics and other information regarding GAO’s protest system.Continue Reading GAO’s Annual Bid Protest Report: Fiscal Year 2025 Protest Filings Drop While the Effectiveness Rate Remains High

As part of the Trump Administration’s Revolutionary FAR Overhaul[1] (“RFO”), the FAR Council has released a model deviation for FAR Part 33 – Protests, Disputes, and Appeals, which includes changes that seem intended to make agency-level protests more appealing to disappointed offerors.  It remains to be seen whether these proposed changes will have the desired effect, particularly in instances where a protester wishes to subsequently re-file at GAO.Continue Reading Revolutionary FAR Overhaul Seeks to Make Post-Award, Agency-Level Protests More Enticing

This blog previously covered the Federal Circuit’s decision in Percipient.ai, Inc. v. United States, which addressed bid protest jurisdiction and standing at the Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”), and seemed to potentially open the door to a new category of protests.  Now, in an en banc ruling, the Federal Circuit vacated that decision and reached a different conclusion on bid protest standing.  The Federal Circuit left the jurisdictional questions unresolved, but even if future decisions construe COFC’s jurisdiction broadly, the Federal Circuit’s decision on standing will likely limit the universe of new protests that might otherwise result from such a broad construction of jurisdiction.    Continue Reading En Banc Decision in Percipient.ai, Inc. v. United States:  Federal Circuit Holds That Only Actual or Prospective Bidders or Offerors Have Bid Protest Standing Under Tucker Act

As we have covered on this blog, the rules governing the timing for bid protests at the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) and Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”) can be both complex and unforgiving.  But a recent COFC decision, Starside Security & Investigation, Inc. v. United States, found the Competition in Contract Act’s (“CICA”) deadline to obtain an automatic stay during a GAO protest to be subject to equitable tolling (i.e., effectively extended) — at least in the circumstances of that case.Continue Reading COFC Decision Allows for Equitable Tolling of CICA Deadline to Obtain an Automatic Stay During a GAO Protest

A pair of recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) bid protest decisions addressing impaired objectivity organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) highlight the fact-specific and highly discretionary nature of a contracting officer’s OCI investigation, as well as the important role that contractors themselves can play in supporting such an investigation.  We discuss these two protests and the key takeaways for contractors below.Continue Reading A Tale of Two Impaired Objectivity Investigations:  Key Takeaways for Contractors Navigating Potential Organizational Conflicts of Interest

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

As we have previously covered on this blog, challenges to the terms of a solicitation typically must be raised in a bid protest brought prior to proposal submission.  The Government Accountability Office recently sustained such a pre-award protest in Selex ES, Inc., B-420799 (Sept. 6, 2022). Continue Reading GAO Sustains Pre-Award Protest and Finds Solicitation Terms to Be Ambiguous

On March 18, 2022, the Department of Defense published a final rule in the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement implementing its “enhanced” debriefing process.  That process originated in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 and had previously been implemented via a class deviation.

The DOD enhanced debriefing process — which applies to procurements under FAR Part 15, and to task order competitions under FAR 16.505 — has two hallmarks:Continue Reading DOD Issues Final DFARS Rule on Enhanced Debriefing Process