Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

2019 NDAA analysis: Changes affecting small businesses and the SBIR program

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The 2019 NDAA contains significant changes that will impact many facets of government contracting.

In this post, we discuss the Sections of the 2019 NDAA that affect small businesses.

As discussed here, these changes include:

1) the codification and reauthorization of defense research and development rapid innovation program;

2) the establishment a Department of Defense small business strategy;

3) the improvement of prompt payment of small business contractors;

4) the increased participation in the SBA microloan program;

5) the extension and amendment of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/ Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs;

6) the funding for procurement technical assistance program;

7) the creation of a commercialization assistance pilot program; and

8) the increasing of opportunities for employee-owned business concerns through SBA loan programs.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=775556

Readying contractors’ security plans for evaluation

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The Defense Department recently issued final guidance for requiring activities to assess contractors’ system security plans and their implementation of the security controls in National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-171.

It includes a compliance guidance document, which explains how department entities will assess contractor implementation of its security controls, and an impact guidance document, which explains how the Pentagon will assess the risks of security controls not implemented.

The compliance guidance addresses three objectives pre-award: requiring a self-attestation of implementation of the special publication in all proposals; imposing enhanced security controls in certain situations; and providing alternatives for compliance as an evaluation factor.

Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement 252.204-7008, which is required in every noncommercial off-the-shelf solicitation, provides that “[b]y submission of this offer, the offeror represents that it will implement the security requirements specified by [NIST SP 800-171].” The Defense Department has interpreted “implementation” as having a completed security system plan and a plan of action and milestones for the relevant covered defense information.

If a requiring activity believes that enhanced security controls are required beyond those in NIST SP 800-171, the compliance guidance provides direction for adding the requirements to a solicitation.

The guidance does not define what constitutes “enhanced controls.” NIST is expected to issue a new appendix of enhanced controls in the first quarter of 2019.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/1/30/readying-security-plans-for-evaluation

See GTPAC’s video, template and other resources designed to help contractors comply with the DoD/NIST cybersecurity rules at: http://gtpac.org/cybersecurity-training-video/

FAR definition of “recruitment fees”: No means no

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On December 20, 2018, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was amended to clarify the FAR’s prohibition on assessing employees with recruitment fees in connection with federal contracts.  The rule provides a final definition of “recruitment fees” and clarifies the FAR’s broad prohibition on federal contractors or subcontractors assessing employees or potential employees with any such fees.

The final rule brings long-awaited clarity to the scope of the prohibition on recruitment fees, as the term has not previously been defined in anti-trafficking regulations.  Upon publication of a proposed rule change in January 2015, the FAR Council invited the public to comment on a draft definition of the term “recruitment fees” in a notice-and-comment process.  The final rule, which took effect on January 22, 2019, incorporates a definition that has been revised pursuant to comments received during that rulemaking process. Government contractors will need to take these new rules into account in their compliance efforts in connection with their supply chains.

Background

On January 29, 2015, DoD, GSA, and NASA issued a final rule amending the FAR to strengthen and enhance the human trafficking-related prohibitions applicable to all federal contracts. The final rule implemented Executive Order (E.O.) 13627, “Strengthening Protections Against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts,” and Title XVII of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, entitled “Ending Trafficking in Government Contracting.”  The amended FAR, which applied to all future contracts and orders under existing indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contracts, imposed significant responsibilities on federal contractors and subcontractors to prevent human trafficking and forced labor.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=768098

DoD makes immediate change to limitations on subcontracting rule; FAR Council issues proposed rule

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The Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a class deviation that resolves the inconsistency between the Small Business Administration (SBA) regulations and the clause at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.219-14 related to the Limitations on Subcontracting Rule (LOSR).

The FAR Council has also issued a proposed rule to amend FAR 52.219-14 to fully resolve this issue for all small businesses. Government contractors should be aware of these new changes and proposed changes.

Generally, the LOSR prevents small business prime contractors from subcontracting the majority of the work under a prime contract to large businesses. The LOSR is intended to ensure that small businesses get the benefit of the set-aside prime contract. The government does not want a small business to get an award, perform only a small portion of the work, and then subcontract out everything else to large businesses.

Since 2016, SBA small businesses have struggled to comply with the LOSR because the regulations at 13 C.F.R. § 125.6 are inconsistent with the contract clause at FAR 52.219-14.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=777544

See DoD’s Jan. 8, 2019 Class Deviation 2019-O0003 on this subject at: https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/policy/policyvault/USA000039-19-DPC_Class_Deviation_2019-O0003.pdf

See the proposed rule here: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2018-12-04/pdf/2018-25506.pdf

GTPAC hosts ‘Creating the Next: Defense Innovation Conference’

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The Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) recently sponsored an event where 200 small innovative tech companies learned about special funding opportunities and programs that are available to small businesses at the Department of Defense (DoD), including the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

“The goal of the January 14th conference was to help small companies, especially small technology companies and innovative manufacturers, learn about how they can do business with the Defense Department and its various components,” explained Andrew Smith, GTPAC’s program manager.  “We wanted to have an event where we could educate the small business community about DoD opportunities.”

GDX connects Georgia businesses with each other and with DoD contract opportunities.

The event featured numerous prominent speakers.  Khai Edouard, the co-founder of the technology consulting firm The Simple Vue, spoke about the Georgia Defense Exchange (GDX), a technology platform that was built for the Georgia Department of Economic Development that helps government defense contractors network with other contractors and find contracting opportunities with DoD.  Contractors can access the Georgia Defense Exchange at https://gdx.georgia.org

The National Security Technology Accelerator prospects, vets, and develops technology.

Tim Greeff, the founder, and CEO of the National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTXL), which prospects and develops innovative technology for the Department of Defense, spoke about Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contracts, and how DoD utilizes OTAs to fund research and prototype development.

Adele Navarrete, senior corporate counsel for the Logistics Management Institute, a major not-for-profit defense contractor, provided attendees with insights and advice on how to win business with the Department of Defense.  Ms. Navarrete later joined an industry panel with Raven Smith, senior regulatory compliance analyst with Lockheed Martin, and John Roman, senior vice president at Huntington Ingalls Industries – Technical Solutions.  They discussed the important attributes and qualities defense contractors look for in subcontractors.

Panelists, representing defense industry giants, provided attendees with subcontracting insights.
Lisa R. Sanders with U.S. Special Operations Command discussed technology problems she’s counting on industry to solve.

The keynote address was delivered by Lisa R. Sanders, the director of science and technology for the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).  As a defense intelligence senior leader, Ms. Sanders is responsible for all research and development funded activities for the U.S. Special Operations Forces at MacDill Air Force Base.  Ms. Sanders gave an overview of USSOCOM’s technology and purchasing priorities, and the difficult technology problems Special Operations Forces needs industry to solve.  Ms. Sanders also gave an overview of how industry could engage and do business with the USSOCOM.

After the keynote speech, attendees were able to network with one another and forge potential business relationships.

Four concurrent workshops were also held in the afternoon sessions that covered a variety of topics of interest to government contractors, including how to develop successful bids and proposals and how to comply with DoD cybersecurity requirements.

“Overall, I’m very proud of the event and how industry and government came together to provide such excellent information and training to our attendees,” said Mr. Smith.  “I think everyone came away learning a lot about how to best engage the Department of Defense if you are a small technology company or manufacturer with the next great product or idea.  I firmly believe Georgia Tech can help connect the next great idea to those in DoD who need that idea and solution — and that is going to keep our nation safe.”

Copies of all presentations made at the Jan. 14, 2019 event — along with related resource materials — can be downloaded from: https://gtpac.org/training-video/

 

Agencies spent record $64.7 billion on IT contracts in 2018

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Federal agencies spent a record $64.7 billion on IT contracts in fiscal 2018, according to research released last week by Bloomberg Government.

The nearly $65 billion spent represents a 9.5 percent increase over fiscal 2017 levels, and includes higher levels of spending in cybersecurity ($6.4 billion), cloud computing ($4.1 billion) and almost a doubling of other transaction authority spending, to $4.2 billion from $2.3 billion.

IT spending jumped in both civilian and defense agencies. Across the Defense Department, IT contract spending grew by about 12 percent to $33.8 billion — the highest nominal spending figure ever for the Defense Department, and highest adjusted for inflation IT contract spending since 2012.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2019/01/agencies-spent-record-647b-it-contracts-2018/154510/

Draft solicitation for Pentagon’s multibillion enterprise solutions contract released

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The Pentagon took the next step in bidding out its Defense Enterprise Office Solutions contract Friday, Feb. 1st, releasing a draft request for quotations for an enterprise cloud service offering likely worth several billion dollars.

The draft solicitation indicates DEOS will be a single-award firm-fixed-price blanket purchase agreement, with a 5-year base period with two 2-year options and a 1-year option—a potential 10-year total period of performance.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2019/02/draft-solicitation-multibillion-deos-contract-released/154595/

DoD continues to up the ante on cybersecurity compliance for contractors

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Compliance with the security controls in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171 is only the beginning for contractors that receive controlled defense information (CDI) in performance of Department of Defense (DoD) contracts and subcontracts.

Faced with an evolving cyber threat, DoD contractors have experienced an increased emphasis on protecting DoD’s information and on confirming contractor compliance with DoD cybersecurity requirements.  This includes audits by the DoD Inspector General (IG) “to determine whether DoD contractors have security controls in place” to protect CDI and enhanced security controls for certain high risk contractor networks.

And on September 28, 2018, the Navy issued a policy memorandum calling for enhanced cybersecurity requirements, including some that have generated opposition within the defense community such as the installation of network sensors by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service on contractor systems.

Other requiring activities are reportedly requiring similar enhanced protections, and NIST is expected to issue a public draft of Revision 2 to NIST SP 800-171 by the end of February, with an appendix of additional enhanced controls.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2019/01/dod-continues-ante-cybersecurity-compliance-contractors/

See GTPAC’s video, template and other resources designed to help contractors comply with the DoD/NIST cybersecurity rules at: http://gtpac.org/cybersecurity-training-video/

‘Eliminate most DoD small business set-asides,’ says Section 809 Panel

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The Section 809 Panel has recommended that Congress eliminate most small business set-asides for DoD acquisitions.

The Panel would replace the longstanding set-aside system with a meager five percent small business price preference.

For small government contractors, this recommendation is the policy equivalent of a five-alarm fire. Small contractors may need to fight hard to save the set-aside system.

Get ready for a battle.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/eliminate-most-dod-small-business-set-asides-says-section-809-panel/

Find all of the Section 809 Panel’s reports here: https://section809panel.org/media/updates/

The new rules of cybersecurity

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At this very moment someone, somewhere in the world may be plotting to hack into an organization’s critical network infrastructure.

Creativity, time and investment are never in short supply when determined attackers are intent on gaining access to networks. It’s created an environment whereby solutions to prevent attacks are being developed just after new hacking tactics are deployed. To solve this divergence, we need to focus on “cyber at machine speed” — implementing new tools simultaneously with or even before hackers.

In short, getting the basics right is no longer enough. Adversaries now have the tools, the motivation and certainly the persistence to overcome current standards and compliance protocols.

Simply put, adequacy is no longer adequate.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2018/12/new-rules-cybersecurity/153714/

See GTPAC’s video, template and other resources designed to help contractors comply with the DoD/NIST cybersecurity rules at: http://gtpac.org/cybersecurity-training-video/

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