In his first month of office, President Obama issued three significant Executive Orders affecting employees of government contractors. Revoking several Bush administration Executive Orders, the three new orders demonstrate a dramatic shift in federal labor policy.
With its mission to discuss and recommend changes to the MAS program, including price reductions provisions, most favored customer status, and practices in commercial pricing, the Multiple Award Schedule (“MAS”) Advisory Panel has voted on several recommendations to present to the Administrator of GSA. The Panel has been meeting since April last year, and currently is preparing its final recommendations. This Blog obtained a copy of the recommendations already adopted by the Panel.
On November 4, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an opinion in Rothe Development Corporation v. Department of Defense, holding that a statute providing for race-based preferences in DOD procurements was unconstitutional. We discussed this decision previously when it was released, noting that the ultimate consequences of the decision were uncertain. We observed that the procedural time limits allowing appeal needed to pass before anything would be considered “final.” Now that it seems that the Government is not appealing the Federal Circuit’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, District Judge Xavier Rodriguez (the original judge from the Western District of Texas) issued an Order on February 26, 2009 enjoining in whole the enabling statute at 10 U.S.C. § 2323, not merely those portions of the statute that relate to race-based preferences.
On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009 ("the Act" or "the Stimulus Bill") (P.L. 111-5) (H.R. 1). We already have discussed some of the provisions of this Act here and here, focusing on the implications of the various audit and Buy American provisions (including those in Section 1605 of the Act).
Since the FAR Council’s November 2008 publication of new regulations mandating the disclosure by federal contractors of certain categories of wrongdoing and Government overpayments, there has been much ink spilled by lawyers, consultants, and the Government itself regarding what it all means. The lack of clear definitions in the rule – notwithstanding the accompanying pages and pages of purported helpfully commentary – has provided ample opportunity for discussion, analysis, and conjecture regarding what the rule requires and what contractors should do to stay compliant.
The $789 billion stimulus bill, H.R. 1, which passed Congress February 13, is expected to have sweeping ramifications for the contracting industry. Four themes throughout the stimulus foreshadow what federal contractors can expect from the Obama Administration: energy efficiency, transparency, competition, and oversight.
Enter keywords:
