Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

What is CUI – The devil is in the details

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Controlled unclassified information (CUI) is defined, in part, as “information the government creates or possesses, or that an entity creates or possesses for or on behalf of the government, that a law, regulation, or government-wide policy requires or permits an agency to handle using safeguarding or dissemination controls.”

Despite this seemingly straightforward definition, identifying CUI has been a challenge for the government and contractors.  This challenge has become particularly evident as the Defense Department implements its interim rule to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement to protect CUI through a mandatory Defense Department assessment methodology and through a slow rollout of its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program.

Continue reading at:  National Defense Magazine

Podcast: Creating government contracting opportunities for small businesses

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This week on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower interviewed serial entrepreneur Shirley Collier, president of Scale2Market.

Topics include:

  • How small contractors can create value,
  • What most contractors don’t understand about market value,
  • Getting on the radar of primes for opportunities, and
  • How do you get your company into agencies that are hard to penetrate.

Listen to the Podcast at:  https://federalnewsnetwork.com/amtower-off-center/2021/04/creating-opportunities-for-small-businesses/

 

 

How a cyber contractor kept its employees after losing a federal contract

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It was quick action that allowed CNF Technologies Corp. to retain several employees after a defense contract was terminated, its CEO Roxanne Ramirez told the Business Journal.

That group consisted of 14 employees at CNF and around nine employees from the prime contractor.

It was roughly three weeks ago when Jason Garcia, CNF’s executive director of mission engineering and integration, got a call from an unnamed prime contractor letting CNF know that the federal government had shut down a contract that CNF was on for more than 10 years. Both the prime contractor and CNF had less than two weeks before roughly 23 people would be out of a job.

Continue reading at:  San Antonio Business Journal

Let’s talk about “zero trust”

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Zero trust has taken the federal government by storm.

As more and more agencies move to the cloud — and especially as they sustain mass telework during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond — the perimeters of their networks are becoming obsolete.  Unable to place confidence in a traditional firewall in this new environment, agencies have no choice but to give “zero trust” to users and devices on their network, requiring them to validate and identify themselves anytime they move across the IT architecture.

In essence, this is the idea behind zero-trust security.

Listen to the podcast at FedScoop Radio:  https://www.fedscoop.com/radio/lets-talk-ep-17-guide-zero-trust-featuring-cisas-sean-connelly/  

Exit strategies for government contractors with set-aside contracts

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Historically, buyers in M&A transactions have discounted the value of a government contractor with significant revenue from small business set-aside contracts, including contracts for service-disabled veteran-owned, 8(a), HubZone, and woman-owned small businesses.  Is that still the case in 2021?

Watch the videocast here:  https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/exit-strategies-for-govcons-with-set-asi-92656/

2M feds on LinkedIn and why this is important to govcon execs

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In mid-January 2021, Mark Amtower, a 36-year veteran in the government contracting market, completed his annual census of federal employees (civilian, DOD, military, and IC) who are on LinkedIn.

You can check out his results by clicking here.

This year, he was able to identify 305 distinct federal entities listed across the LinkedIn platform.

DOD/military accounts for 1,121,085 individuals and civilian agencies account for 908,869 individuals.

As you might expect, the usage of LinkedIn has risen during the pandemic.

Continue reading at:  GovConWire

SBA’s change to joint venture bank account rule is another trap for the unwary

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If you are part of a joint venture between a small protege and its large mentor under the SBA’s Mentor-Protege Program, heads up: the SBA recently amended its list of mandatory requirements for joint venture agreements to cover what happens to funds leftover in the joint venture bank account at the end of a project.

Like the revised recordkeeping rules SmallGovCon discussed in an earlier post, the new required provision only applies to mentor-protege joint ventures pursuing small business set-aside contracts–not to JVs seeking 8(a), SDVOSB/VOSB, WOSB/EDWOSB or HUBZone work.  Confusingly (and again, like the recordkeeping rules), SBA’s decision to change only the small business set-aside regulation, 13 C.F.R 125.8, means that the same joint venture agreement may not be valid for both small business set-aside contracts and socioeconomic contracts.

Continue reading at:  SmallGovCon

CRS reports: Small business contracting and a primer on SBA programs

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The Congressional Research Service recently updated a report on Small Business Contracting that provides a nice overview of how small businesses work and do business with the federal government.  They also recently updated a primer on SBA programs and funding.  Both reports provide excellent information that may be helpful to small businesses seeking to do business with the federal government or businesses that wish to take advantage of the programs provided by the SBA.

You can review the reports here:

An Overview of Small Business Contracting

Small Business Administration:  A Primer on Programs and Funding

 

 

CRS report: SBA surety bond guarantee program

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The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has recently updated its report on the SBA Surety Bond Guarantee Program.  The report provides a nice overview and explanation of the program, its eligibility requirements, and how it operates, which should be of great interest to contractors who are seeking to pursue government projects, such as government construction projects, which often require bonding.

You can read the full report here:

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42037

In a size protest, respond to SBA’s requests or there could be an adverse inference

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The Small Business Administration (“SBA”) Office of Hearings and Appeals (“OHA”) has a very clear-cut set of guidelines for deciding appeals of contractor’s size protests in connection with set-asides or other size issues.  In response to a size protest, an Area Office of SBA requests the protested concern to submit an SBA Form 355 (detailed information on the protested concern) and other information, including a response to a protest.  Contractors are required to respond or are likely to suffer from their nonresponse.  Size Appeal of Apogee Engineering, LLC, SBA No. SIZ-6078, Nov. 5, 2020, is an excellent example of the fate of a protested concern that failed to respond and was unable to successfully defend against a size appeal because of an adverse inference.

Continue reading at:  Public Contracting Institute

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