Effective January 1, 2023, the certification process for veteran-owned small businesses (“VOSBs”) and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (“SDVOSBs”) will be transferred from the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) to the Small Business Administration (“SBA”). Except for implementation transitioning discussed below, to be eligible for sole-source and set-aside acquisitions, VOSBs and SDVOSBs will need to be certified by the SBA.
Previously, VOSB and SDVOSB verifications were made by the VA’s Center for Verification and Evaluation (“CVE”). To be eligible for VA contracts, VOSBs/SDVOSBs had to be verified by the CVE; there was no government-wide certification program, and firms seeking SDVOSB sole-source or set-aside contracts outside the VA only needed to self-certify their status pursuant to Section 36 of the Small Business Act, 15 U.S.C. 657f.
On November 29, 2022, the SBA published a final rule implementing Section 862 of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) transferring authority for VOSB/SDVOSB certifications from the VA to the SBA. The final rule consolidates the eligibility requirements for the Veteran Small Business Certification Program, and the SBA is assuming control of VOSB/SDVOSB certification for purposes of nearly all small business federal contracting. SBA also published a Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQ”) page regarding the final rule.
Federal government contractors and subcontractors often struggle with flow-down clauses. Fundamentally, prime and subcontractors squabble over flow-down clauses because they involve assumption of risk. A prime contractor has committed to comply with all of the clauses in its prime contract. To the extent a prime contractor does not flow down a clause to its subcontractor, the prime contractor assumes the risk of any subcontractor non-compliance. This is because, if a contracting officer identifies regulatory non-compliance, the government only looks to the party with which it has privity to enforce compliance: the prime contractor. If the prime contractor has not flowed down the applicable clause to its subcontractor, the prime contractor is responsible for its subcontractor’s non-compliance. If the clause has been flowed down, the prime contractor can enforce compliance upon its subcontractor. From a subcontractor perspective, the more flow-down clauses it accepts from its prime contractor, the more compliance risk it assumes.
As a result, prime contractors seek to flow down as many FAR clauses as possible—well beyond the mandatory flow downs discussed below. Subcontractors, meanwhile, seek to keep flow-down clauses to a minimum. Subcontractors must analyze when it is appropriate and productive to resist non-mandatory flow-down clauses, and sometimes the answers to these questions may not be straightforward. Below we address the mandatory flow-down clauses for commercial subcontracts with commercial and non-commercial prime contractors, how subcontractors can handle irrelevant clauses, and best flow-down practices for prime contractors and subcontractors.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) recently issued a final rule that creates new opportunities for small businesses to submit relevant past performance, and new requirements for large/other than small prime contractors to provide past performance reviews to first-tier small business subcontractors.
The final rule is intended to help small businesses overcome the hurdle of having minimal past performance to use in competitive procurements. The rule creates new mechanisms to permit small businesses to use the past performance of a joint venture in which it was a member, or to use its performance as a first-tier subcontractor. The new rule takes effect on August 22, 2022.
Federal government contractors and subcontractors with 50 or more employees and a federal contract or subcontract with a value of $50,000 or more measured during any 12-month period are required to develop a written Affirmative Action Program (“AAP”) within 120 days from the start of the federal contract.
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) has established a Contractor Portal for federal government contractors to register and certify that they have developed and maintained affirmative action programs at each of their establishments or functional units: OFCCP Contractor Portal. Contractors that do not register and certify are more likely to be selected for an OFCCP AAP audit.
The deadline to register and submit AAP certifications is June 30, 2022.
As the federal government prepares to roll out infrastructure grants and contracts in amounts not seen since the New Deal and the defense industrial base (“DIB”) gears up to support billions in new spending to support Ukraine, a new Department of Defense (“DoD”) report raises serious concerns about the state of competition within the DIB. The report recently released by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment analyzes the state of competition within the DIB and concluded that it can be summarized in one word: poor. The report discusses the causes for the lack of competition and makes recommendations for improving the solicitation process to increase competition, inspire innovation, reduce prices, and improve quality.
Consolidation
Foremost among the causes for the lack of competition identified by the report is consolidation of the DIB. Of 51 aerospace and defense prime contractors in the 1990s only five exist today. Although the report failed to find significant correlation between this consolidation and increased pricing, the consolidation raises additional concerns for DoD, such as national security, mission risk, and strategic technology innovation. The report notes that “having only a single source or a small number of sources for a defense need can pose mission risk and, particularly in cases where the existing dominant supplier or suppliers are influenced by an adversary nation, pose significant national security risks.” The report recommends that when a merger is likely to harm one of these interests, DoD work closely with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to take structural or behavioral measures deemed necessary, up to and including blocking the merger.
June 2021 marked the five-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Kingdomware decision[1], which is best known for broadly interpreting the so-called “Rule of Two” requirement flowing from the Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006 (the “VBA”). The Rule has been criticized for delaying Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) procurements and increasing the prices the government pays for goods and services. However, the importance of the Rule’s purpose—to prioritize and increase the government’s use of small businesses owned by veterans—cannot be credibly challenged.
Over the past five years, the Federal Circuit, Court of Federal Claims, and Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) protest decisions have created some bright-line rules interpreting the VBA’s Rule of Two. After a brief summary of the Rule of Two, this post lays out these bright-line rules, and concludes with predictions regarding future VBA Rule of Two protests.
Recently, I hosted the second session of Blank Rome’s new on-demand webinar series, “Strategically Speaking,” with featured guests Gilbert Dussek of Gunnison Consulting Group and Kevin Robbins of Blue Delta Capital Partners about the key issues that growing government contracts firms face in their business life cycle as they transform from small to “other-than-small” businesses. You are invited to watch the recording on demand here; I hope you find it helpful and informative.
Dussek has been a successful high-level operator on both large and small govcon platforms and in 2019 became CEO of Gunnison, a leader in software development, data analytics, and enterprise system testing for leading government customers. Robbins has served multiple roles as a consultant to and an owner/investor in govcon companies and is a co-founder of Blue Delta, a growth capital firm focused on the U.S. federal government services marketplace, particularly technology-enabled solutions and services companies.
Our session includes an informative and helpful discussion focused on:
Reviewing Blue Delta’s and Gunnison’s decision to team up:
Factors that went into Blue Delta’s decision to invest in Gunnison; and
The driving and differentiating attributes that Blue Delta looks for in “investable” target companies
Strategically growing from an SBSA to full & open govcon company:
Building, scouting, and acquiring talent; and
Competitively bidding on and winning, or acquiring, F&O contracts
Identifying and filtering acquisition targets and structuring acquisitions:
The roles of company culture, chemistry (of personnel), and vision; and
How Blue Delta thinks about portfolio company construction; and
Gunnison’s near-term and long-term visions and plans
*Dean Nordlinger is a partner in our Corporate practice whose new “Strategically Speaking” webinar series includes discussions with a variety of seasoned professionals and subject matter experts about critical and challenging issues that government contractors and other companies (and business owners) face throughout their life cycle.
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) ended a long-running controversy by issuing a final rule stating that healthcare providers participating in the TRICARE military healthcare program are not federal subcontractors. TRICARE provides healthcare benefits to uniformed service members, retirees, and their families. In its final rule, the OFCCP, which enforces anti-discrimination laws as to government contractors, states that it does not have authority to enforce regulatory obligations in Executive Order 11246, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, including affirmative action obligations, with respect to TRICARE providers.
Controversy regarding the status of TRICARE providers as potential federal subcontractors began in 2007 when OFCCP first asserted its authority over an Orlando, Florida, hospital serving TRICARE beneficiaries. Years of litigation ensued. In 2011, Congress sought to resolve any confusion by including a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 barring the OFCCP from asserting jurisdiction over a healthcare provider based on TRICARE participation.
Notwithstanding Congress’ clear intent to foreclose OFCCP’s further assertions of jurisdiction based solely on TRICARE, the agency continued its enforcement efforts. Eventually, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, in 2014, the agency implemented a five-year moratorium on enforcement actions against TRICARE providers. In 2018, OFCCP extended the moratorium an additional two years during which, in November 2019, the agency initiated a proposed rulemaking leading to its final rule issued earlier this month.
The OFCCP’s final rule makes clear, for now, that TRICARE providers are not required to comply with certain employment protections involving race, sex, and other characteristics, including implementing affirmative action plans. In the final rule, the agency states that even if it had authority over TRICARE providers, it would grant a national interest exception for the providers.
According to the agency, the final rule gives certainty to more than 87,000 healthcare providers regarding their legal obligations and aims to improve access to medical care for veterans and their families, increase cost savings for TRICARE providers, and allocate the agency’s limited resources more efficiently.
The final rule only applies to healthcare providers under the TRICARE program. To the extent a healthcare provider has a separate federal prime contract or subcontract, it is still subject to the agency’s rules and regulations. Thus, if you are a TRICARE provider, you can breathe a sigh of relief but you must remain vigilant regarding direct contracts with other federal agencies and, more importantly, scrutinize whether subcontracts involving federal healthcare programs, other than TRICARE, could nonetheless make you a federal subcontractor subject to OFCCP’s rules and regulations and other Federal Acquisition Regulations. Our previous guidance in this area can be found in our blog post, Who Is a Subcontractor under a Federal Government Contract?
A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office decision involving a Small Business Administration-approved small business joint venture, or JV, suggests that JVs between large and small firms should adjust their proposal strategies to avoid downgrades on past performance when the small business JV member, and the JV itself, lack relevant past performance.
Background
Proposing on a set-aside contract as an SBA-approved JV between a small and large business has been an effective strategy for many years. A basic assumption of this approach—and a primary motivation for using a JV structure—has been that an agency evaluating the JV’s past performance would normally look at the combined past performance of the JV members.
In many respects, this evaluation assumption has been a main motivation for using the JV structure, in contrast to a prime-subcontractor structure.
Typically, the large business JV member will have greater and more relevant past performance than the small business. The thinking had been that the JV structure would allow both members to leverage the large JV partner’s past performance for evaluation purposes by imputing the large business’ past performance to the JV.
However, the recent GAO bid protest decision in ProSecure LLC calls this assumption into doubt, suggesting the need for adjustments to proposal strategies for large and small firms in JVs or that plan to use JVs.
If you’re like me, it’s the time of year when you clean out your garage and closets and do all those outside projects you delayed until the weather warmed up. If you are a government contractor, you should consider this to be the season to do some spring cleaning in terms of your government contract compliance programs and procedures. Not to be an alarmist, but there are numerous areas you can review now and, if you should find some compliance deficiencies, you still have ample time to get your house in order before an agency audit or the deadline for submission of certain government reports.
