Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

A whole new marketplace: GSA’s “commercial platforms” initiative

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The US General Services Administration has opened up several commercial marketplaces, including Amazon Business, to allow direct micro-purchases (generally up to $10,000) by federal users.  With sales anticipated to total $6 billion annually, this “commercial platforms” initiative largely removes the federal procurement system as an intermediary in the purchasing process.

Recently, attorneys from Arnold & Porter’s Government Contracts practice and special guest LTC Abraham Young (USA) discuss GSA’s proof-of-concept effort, which has both reshaped procurement and potentially redrawn a marketplace.  They will review the co-authored article they published on issues that the entirely new federal marketplace presents, including competition, transparency, cybersecurity, and customer choice.  This discussion will be an essential briefing for contractors that might want to sell through this important new channel to their government customers, as well as for governments that are considering accessing platforms such as Amazon Business.

Watch the discussion at:  Arnold & Porter

CRS Reports: Mentor-Protégé programs and small business size standards

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The Congressional Research Service has updated two reports that may be of interest to government contractors.  The first report provides an overview of federal government Mentor-Protégé programs.  The second report provides an overview of small business size standards and how the government calculates business size.  While these reports are typically created to inform members of Congress as they engage in the legislative and policy-making process, they contain a lot of helpful and useful information that may be of interest to GTPAC clients.

CRS Report: Small businesses and COVID-19, relief and assistance resources

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CRS has updated its insight report regarding available resources for small businesses that are directly affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and seeking economic relief and assistance.

For an analysis of the small business provisions contained in various congressional legislation throughout the pandemic, see CRS Report R46284, COVID-19 Relief Assistance to Small Businesses: Issues and Policy Options.  For businesses interested in supporting COVID-19 mobilization efforts, see CRS Insight IN11419, COVID-19: Selected Federal Resources for Businesses Seeking to Assist with Research and Manufacturing Efforts.  For a list of CRS products related to COVID-19, see the CRS COVID-19 Resources page.

How do I find out what the government is buying?

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It is important to conduct serious market research before deciding to invest resources into doing business with the federal government.  Use the resources below to help you start to find out what the government currently buys.

USASPENDING.gov

Award history of federal procurements and grants is available on a government website called USASPENDING.gov.

Contract Data Reports ⁠— formerly Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)

Government agencies are responsible for collecting and reporting data on federal procurements through Contract Data Reports.  This new site, which is part of Beta.SAM.gov, is replacing the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) legacy site.

Contract Opportunities

Open market procurements over $25,000 must be published to the Federal Government’s Contract Opportunities portal at beta.SAM.gov.  The site can be used to search, monitor, and retrieve opportunities solicited by the entire federal contracting community.  The site can also be used to research past procurement history.

Read the full article here:  https://www.wispro.org/faqs/how-do-i-find-out-what-the-federal-government-is-buying/

Past performance isn’t always a required evaluation factor, says GAO

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For companies trying to break into the government market for the first time, past performance can seem a bit like the old chicken-and-egg conundrum. Sometimes it can appear like a company can’t win a government contract without a strong record of past performance–but can’t build a past performance record without contracts! And with the government’s continued movement away from lowest-price, technically acceptable evaluations, past performance seems increasingly important.

But that doesn’t mean the government always has to consider past performance as an evaluation factor.  Instead, as a recent GAO bid protest decision confirms, procuring agencies have broad discretion to omit past performance in appropriate cases.

Continue reading at:  SmallGovCon

If you plan to use the SBA’s template joint venture agreement, read this first

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If you’re setting up your first joint venture under the SBA’s rules, you may be tempted to download the SBA’s template joint venture agreement and use it as-is.

But, as of the date of this post, the SBA’s template joint venture agreement is outdated–and it also has some other quirks and potential problems you should know about. If you’re planning to use the SBA’s joint venture template, read this first.

Outdated Provisions

If you’ve been following my posts on SmallGovCon (and I hope you have!), you’ll recall that I have recently written about substantive changes the SBA made to the joint venture regulations in November 2020. For mentor-protégé joint ventures attempting to comply with the regulations under 13 C.F.R. 125.8, I believe that two of these changes–to the mandatory JV requirements governing bank accounts and recordkeeping, respectively–are substantive changes sufficiently at odds with the “old,” pre-November regulations such that a joint venture agreement will be non-compliant unless it includes these updates. As of the date of this post, these changes are not included in the SBA’s template.

The November 2020 regulations also made some other changes, not only to the small business joint venture regulations under 13 C.F.R. 125.8, but the separate joint venture regulations for the for 8(a), SDVOSB/VOSB, HUBZone, and EDWOSB/WOSB programs.  For instance, the SBA’s new regulations eliminate the term “Project Manager” in favor of the more-inclusive “Responsible Manager.”  These other changes may not be significant enough to render a joint venture non-compliant if it doesn’t enact them–but why take any risks?

Continue reading at:  SmallGovCon

Roadmap to Joint Venture agreements: legal and accounting considerations

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Piliero Mazza and Baker Tilly recently gave a helpful webinar on Joint Venture Agreements.  Joint ventures (JVs) can be a powerful tool to improve a government contractor’s odds of winning federal contracts.  With the SBA’s Mentor Protégé Program facilitating JVs and large multiple award contracts making many firms form JVs, an understanding of how JVs work from a legal and accounting perspective is a must.

Watch the webinar on-demand at:  JD Supra

All is not forgiven: PPP forgiveness and credits

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On March 23, 2021, The House Small Business, Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure held a remote hearing titled:  “The Interaction Between the Paycheck Protection Program and Federal Acquisition Regulations:  What It Means for Government Contractors.”  The hearing focused specifically on the interplay between Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness and Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 31.201-5 “Credits,” and how that interplay impacts federal contractors that perform cost-type contracts.  This meeting highlights an area where contractors have, at best, incomplete guidance.  We will continue tracking these issues as new guidance is issued.

Continue reading at:  Government Contracts Insights

Does erosion of noncompetes in the DMV herald a national trend?

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Noncompetition agreements are common tools used by employers to prevent former employees from unfairly competing against them.  Traditionally, many states have allowed employers to require employees to sign noncompetes as long as they were reasonable in scope and protected an employer’s legitimate business interests.  In turn, employers often required every employee to sign a noncompete even when it was unlikely that certain employees, particularly those in lower-wage positions, really posed much of a future competitive threat.  In recent years, in response to the overuse of noncompetes by employers, several states have passed legislation limiting their use – with the trend most acutely taking hold in the area surrounding Washington, D.C.  Is the activity in the DMV an anomaly, or does it demonstrate the larger national picture?

Continue reading at:  JD Supra

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