A bill just introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Nick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), who chairs the House Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce, has been termed an attempt to solve some problems in the federal government’s programs to increase opportunities for small businesses to participate in government contracts. The bill, known as the...
Author: blawgger
Is This the Right Way to Give Small Business a Bigger Piece of the Pie?
By Carol L. O’Riordan Increasing the percentage of federal government contracts that are allocated to small business is a worthy goal. But is the best method of achieving it the automatic imposition of monetary penalties on officials whose agencies don’t meet the new standard? What about the automatic reduction of the agency’s budget? Rep. Sam...
D.C. Circuit: OSHA Can Fine General Contractors for Sub’s Safety Violations
A Dec. 14, 2011, ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit greatly expanded a general contractor’s exposure for a subcontractor’s safety violations when working on a multi-employer construction site. While the multi-employer worksite liability doctrine has been applied in other jurisdictions, this case, Summit Contractors, Inc. v. Secretary of Labor and...
Government Contractors Get 7-Day Review Period to Challenge Publication of Data
By Carol L. O’Riordan and Selena Brady Government contractors will now have a slightly better means of challenging the possible release to the general public of information on them that may actually be exempt from publication under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). On January 3, 2012, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, which helps coordinate...
Will Obama Reorganization Plan Be a Boon to Small Businesses?
By Carol L. O’Riordan On January 13, 2012, President Barack Obama announced a proposed major government reorganization that would combine the Small Business Administration with five other agencies to create a new, yet unnamed umbrella agency that handles issues of commerce and trade. This step requires the approval of Congress, which at this point appears...
Task Force Meeting Will Give Veterans an ‘Open Mike’ on Contracting
By Carol L. O’Riordan Veterans who are federal contractors under the government’s various small business programs, or would like to become contractors, will have a chance to vent their concerns or express their praise at an upcoming public meeting of the Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development. The Veterans Administration is one of...
Cordray Appointment Is Signal to Industry to Get Its House in Order
By Pamela J. Bethel Now that President Obama has used his recess appointment power and installed Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Cordray has wasted no time in asserting his priorities and getting started with his regulatory agenda. Under the Dodd-Frank law that set up the CFPB to curb...
Setback in FCPA Case Won’t Cool DOJ’s Ardor for Prosecutions
On Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, Judge Richard Leon in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia dismissed conspiracy charges against six defendants in the high-profile “Gabon sting” Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case. After 12 weeks of trial in which the government put on its case, the judge found that there was insufficient evidence...
U.S. Announces Recovery of $422 Million in Contract Fraud in FY 2011
By Carol L. O’Riordan The Justice Department announced on Dec. 19, 2011, that it recovered $422 million in fiscal year 2011 in procurement fraud cases. The total amount recovered for procurement fraud in the last three fiscal years exceeds $1.5 billion, a record for any three-year period. It’s clear that procurement and contract fraud are...
VA Changes Stance on Key Issue on Veterans’ Set-Aside Contracts
In response to a more-than-gentle nudge from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a lawsuit by veteran-owned companies, and considerable dissatisfaction on Capitol Hill, the Veterans Administration has backtracked from a prior legal position that could have reduced the impact of a 2006 law that Congress passed in order to help veterans obtain government contracts on...