The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council recently issued its long-awaited final rule limiting the ability of civilian agencies to use the Lowest Price Technically Acceptable.
On January 15, 2021, the Department of Defense (DoD) published in the Federal Register a final rule [Docket DARS–2019–0063] adopting as final, with changes, an interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement sections of the National Defense Authorization Acts for Fiscal Years 2018 and 2019 related to the procurement of covered telecommunications equipment or services.
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President Biden signed an executive order (EO) on January 25, 2021, outlining his administration’s policy to increase procurement of U.S.-made products by expansion of domestic preferences for American-made goods and components purchased by the federal government.
The EO, which follows President Biden’s campaign pledge to strengthen existing rules favoring U.S. manufacturers in federal procurement, requires the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council, among other things, to consider amendments to existing FAR provisions to increase domestic content requirements for end products and construction materials. Significantly, the EO also creates a new entity within the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the Made in America Office to oversee agency waivers of Buy American and Buy America requirements, centralizing oversight of such waivers.
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The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last month reversed a decision by the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals that rejected a contractor’s proposed document legends prohibiting unauthorized third-party use of technical data delivered to the US government with unlimited rights.
On December 21, 2020, the Federal Circuit decided
The Boeing Company v. Secretary of the Air Force.[1] The case was an appeal by Boeing of a denial of summary judgment and final judgment of the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (the Board) regarding certain legends that Boeing marked on its documents containing technical data delivered to the US Department of the Air Force with unlimited rights under government contracts. The Federal Circuit reversed the Board’s denial, finding that defense contract requirements for legends on technical data submitted to the government do not apply to legends that restrict only third-pa
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President Biden signed a flurry of executive orders on January 20, 2021, his first day in office, a number of which rescinded or revised the prior administration’s executive orders and policies with regard to equity in the workplace.
Notably, Mr. Biden formally rescinded the prior administration’s Executive Order 13950, which sought to limit federal contractors and the recipients of federal grants from discussing “divisive” topics in workplace trainings on issues of diversity and inclusion (D&I), including what that order called “stereotyping” and “scapegoating” on the basis of race or sex. The order generated significant controversy in the federal contractor community, and confusion for those employers that wish to pursue D&I initiatives. In December 2020, a federal district court enjoined the order nationally, finding key provisions of the rule unconstitutional restrictions on free speech, as well as