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President Biden signed an executive order (EO) on January 25, 2021, titled “Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers.” Referring broadly to all statutes, regulations, rules, and executive orders that relate to Buy America, Buy American, or domestic sourcing requirements as “Made in America Laws,” the EO expresses the new administration’s policy that the U.S. government should maximize the use of domestic products and services and “should, whenever possible, procure goods, products, materials, and services from sources that will help American businesses compete in strategic industries and help America’s workers thrive.” This new EO was issued just days after the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (FAR Council) finalized a rule to increase the Buy American Act (BAA) domestic content requirements.
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Contractors and contractor teams competing for set-aside contracts should internalize the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) compliance lesson imparted by a recent Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) protest decision related to small business set-aside procurements. In
Kira Training Services, LLC, B-419149.3 (January 4, 2021) GAO illustrated that in the set-aside area, an Agency can violate a mandatory FAR provision, but a contractor cannot complain unless it takes timely proactive steps to protect itself from the government error. In
Kira, GAO found that on a set-aside contract, the Navy violated the FAR by not sending the required pre-award list of intended awardees to all offerors, but the small business protester was not competitively prejudiced by the Navy error because it failed to protect itself by filing a post-award size protest.
Associated General Contractors of America,
Arlington, Virginia, has issued a public comment on behalf of the 13 construction industry trade and professional organizations on the
Office of Federal Procurement Policy Federal Acquisition Regulation entitled Federal Acquisition Regulation: Reverse Auction Guidance . The comment was written on
Feb. 5, 2021, and posted on
Feb. 9, 2021:
On behalf of the undersigned 13 construction industry trade and professional organizations, I would like to thank the
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council for the opportunity to comment on this proposed rule to amend the FAR to provide guidance on the use of reverse auctions. For background, the undersigned 13 construction industry trade and professional organizations represent tens of thousands of firms and individuals engaged in architecture, engineering, construction program and project management, surveying and mapping, prime contracting, subcontracting, specialty trade contrac
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The Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee (ISDC) recently released its annual report to Congress regarding suspension and debarment across the federal government in FY 2019. The report serves as a yearly reminder that while selling to the federal government – the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world – may present tremendous opportunities, it is not without risk or obligation. As Justice Holmes stated in
Rock Island, Arkansas & Louisiana R.R. Co. v. United States, 254 U.S. 141, 143 (1920), people “must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.” Those that don’t may lose access to the federal marketplace altogether, a loss that can prove fatal to companies that are heavily reliant on government contracts or grants.
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On Jan. 25, 2021, President Biden signed an executive order (EO), “Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers.” This EO initiates the implementation of Biden’s campaign promise to Buy American, including his commitment to “tighten domestic content rules” and “crack down on waivers to Buy American requirements.”
The EO implements a more consistent and centralized approach to waiver review by establishing a new Made in America office and director role at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The EO also initiates several key reviews, which could result in significant changes to current practice, including potential changes to the domestic preference requirements, revocation of exceptions applicable to certain commercial information technology (IT) and revisions to the list of nonavailable items.