The United States Department of Defense (“DOD”) has amended the process for debriefings required under Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) 15.506 to allow for offeror questions related to the debriefing. Offerors are allowed up to two business days following a debriefing to submit written questions, and the agency has up to five business days after receipt of the questions to submit written responses. The agency must hold the debriefing open until it delivers its written responses to the disappointed offeror. The new process applies to all DOD debriefings required under FAR 15.506.
The purpose of this new rule implementing section 818 of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) is to improve the quality of debriefings and reduce the number of situations where disappointed offerors feel compelled to protest because the information they receive in debriefings is insufficiently detailed to convince them that the selection decision was fair. More fulsome debriefings should allow offerors to make more informed decisions about whether to protest. Continue reading “New DOD Class Deviation Changes Debriefing Process”
On September 18, 2017, the Senate passed its version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”). The proposed bill, which heads into conference with the House to resolve the competing bills, will implement significant changes to the federal bid protest practice at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), should the bill emerge more or less intact from conference and if it is signed into law by the President. 
On January 5, 2017, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (“OFPP”) issued a “myth-busting” memorandum to Chief Acquisition Officers, Senior Procurement Executives, and Chief Information Officers in the federal government addressing common myths related to government debriefings. The memorandum, titled “Myth-busting 3: Further Improving Industry Communication with Effective Debriefings,” is a continuation of the OFPP initiative first launched in February 2011 to debunk misconceptions about communications with the industry during federal government acquisitions and to assist agencies with adopting best acquisition practices. 
Almost daily, clients call our office seeking to protest the award of a federal government contract. Unfortunately, sometimes these calls are too late. While contracts can be protested at the agency level, the Court of Federal Claims, and the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”), GAO protests are the most common. The deadlines by which a protester must take certain actions to file a timely protest are confusing. Below we address some of the trickier and/or mandatory deadlines a potential protester must meet to file a timely protest, and we provide a useful sample timeline for protesters to follow during this critical process. 
On June 14, 2016, the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) for Fiscal Year 2017,