The Contracting Education Academy

Contracting Academy Logo
  • Home
  • Training & Education
  • Services
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Archives for DOL

November 19, 2020 By cs

What a Biden administration will mean for contractors

For federal contractors, much will change under a Biden administration.

Some changes will return the familiar.  Some wags are already calling the next presidency a third Obama term.  That may or may not be accurate, much less fair to Biden.

One thing is certain, the government won’t retreat one dollar from its $500 billion-a-year contracting appetite.  Beyond that, the pH of the procurement waters will change.

The agency to watch, if you’re a contractor, and by extension a contracting officer, is the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.  This Labor Department unit is the source of many policies that apply to contractors, starting with ensuring contractors follow what used to be called employment standards.  Mainly that contractors don’t, in their own employment practices, violate equal opportunity laws and regulations.

Administrations use it as one of the levers of power the general public doesn’t see, unlike, say, the Environmental Protection Agency or Justice Department.  Its policies apply to contracts and contractors.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2020/11/what-a-biden-administration-will-mean-for-contractors/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: DOJ, DOL, EPA, federal contractors, government spending, Justice Dept., Labor Dept., OFCCP, spending, White House

February 26, 2020 By cs

DOL set to streamline procurement services

The Labor Department (DOL) is consolidating its procurement services into one office this quarter, after making headway streamlining human resources and information technology support, the department’s No. 2 official states.

This is part of a push from the Trump administration for more shared services, where one office provides administrative support for multiple agencies within a department or across government.

Deputy Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella, who also worked at the department under the George W. Bush administration, made his remarks about shared services during an event hosted by the nonprofit National Academy of Public Administration. Upon returning to the department in 2018, there were 19 human resources offices, four procurement units and four information technology offices, he said, leading to a “patchwork quilt of administrative professionals scattered across the agency.” The department fully implemented human resources shared services in fiscal 2019 and is almost done with consolidating information technology.

Pizzella said shifting to a shared services model was an “intentionally slow and deliberate” move, which is part of the department’s fiscal 2018-2022 strategic plan. “[Labor Department] agencies would be giving up their own administrative offices and we needed to centralize that in a way that freed up resources for them to focus on mission and ensure that they receive the same, if not better services under the new model,” he said. “We spent nearly 18 months in discovering and planning stages…[which] allowed us to identify both challenges and best practices.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/01/labor-department-set-start-procurement-shared-services/162645/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, acquisition workforce, consolidation, DOL, Labor Dept., procurement reform, shared services

February 14, 2020 By cs

Federal contracting community shreds FBO replacement site in letter to GSA

“If this had the same notoriety as Healthcare.gov, people would have been fired.”

The transition of the federal contracting opportunities website from Federal Business Opportunities, better known as FedBizOpps or FBO, to the Contracting Opportunities page of beta.SAM.gov caused concern ahead of the migration and frustration after the move.  Three months after the transition finished, the government contracting community’s anger has yet to be assuaged.

Last week, the Professional Services Council — an industry group representing 400 federal contractors — sent a letter to the General Services Administration detailing its members’ concerns and asking for immediate action.

“It was … with consternation and concern that PSC watched the dissolution of GSA’s FedBizOps portal and the difficult transition to beta.Sam.gov as its replacement,” PSC Executive Vice President and Counsel Alan Chvotkin wrote in the letter to Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Julie Dunne.  “Regrettably, initial ‘bumps in the road’ have continued beyond the functionality that GSA announced would not be carried over from the old system, and our members asked that we bring their views to your attention.”

PSC members decried the new site, with many telling GSA they would prefer to see the old FBO site recommissioned.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/02/federal-contracting-community-shreds-fbo-replacement-site-letter-gsa/163076/

See our earlier articles on this subject at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/?s=beta

See GSA memo regarding transition of FBO.gov to beta.sam.gov at: FBO Has Transitioned to Beta 2

Hints for using the new Contract Opportunities function in beta.SAM.gov are here: https://interact.gsa.gov/blog/helpful-hints-new-contract-opportunities-function-betasamgov-how-use-search-filters

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: beta.SAM.gov, CFDA, DOL, FBO, FedBizOpps, FPDS, GSA, Labor Dept., PSC, SAM, Treasury Dept.

February 13, 2020 By cs

Procurement reporting tool is moving to SAM, but FPDS.gov isn’t going anywhere

GSA is moving the central reporting function of the Federal Procurement Data System to beta.SAM while Treasury works to improve the quality of data reported through the site.

As the General Services Administration continues to develop a one-stop website for all federal contracting at beta.SAM.gov, the main reporting functions of the Federal Procurement Data System, or FPDS, will be added to the site in March. However, the current FPDS website, fpds.gov, isn’t going anywhere any time soon and is slated for an upgrade.

Several procurement websites and apps have already been migrated to beta.SAM.gov, including Wage Determination Online, or WDOL, the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, or CFDA, and the government’s main contract opportunities site Federal Business Opportunities, better known as FedBizOpps or FBO.

FPDS is next on deck, with the four main reporting functions—administrative, static, standard and ad hoc—prepped to migrate to SAM by March 16. But for the time being, fpds.gov will remain.

“All other functions—search, agency contract award data entry, data extracts—will remain at fpds.gov as the site is not retiring at this time,” a GSA spokesperson told Nextgov.

That said, users will no longer be able to run any reports on fpds.gov.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/02/procurement-reporting-tool-moving-sam-fpdsgov-isnt-going-anywhere/162904/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: beta.SAM.gov, CFDA, DOL, FBO, FedBizOpps, FPDS, GSA, Labor Dept., SAM, Treasury Dept.

November 26, 2018 By AMK

Labor Dept. eases EEO requirements for contracts to provide California wildfire relief

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has temporarily suspended certain requirements, “allowing businesses involved in wildfire relief the ability to prioritize recovery efforts.”

This follows action by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) which announced plans to assist those affected by the California wildfires. The DOL’s actions include relief efforts by a number of agencies.

In a national interest exemption memorandum to all contracting agencies of the federal government, OFCCP Acting Director Craig Leen cited the “special circumstances in the national interest presented by the destruction caused by California Wildfires” as the reason behind the institution of a limited exemption and waiver from some of the requirements of the laws administered by OFCCP.

The memorandum applies to new supply and service and construction contracts entered into between November 19, 2018, and February 19, 2019, specifically to provide California wildfire relief.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/ofccp-eases-requirements-contracts-to-provide-california-wildfire-relief

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: affirmative action, deviation, DOL, E.O. 11246, EEO, FAR, OFCCP

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Popular Topics

abuse acquisition reform acquisition strategy acquisition training acquisition workforce Air Force Army AT&L bid protest budget budget cuts competition cybersecurity DAU DFARS DHS DoD DOJ FAR fraud GAO Georgia Tech GSA GSA Schedule GSA Schedules IG industrial base information technology innovation IT Justice Dept. Navy NDAA OFPP OMB OTA Pentagon procurement reform protest SBA sequestration small business spending technology VA
Contracting Academy Logo
75 Fifth Street, NW, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30308
info@ContractingAcademy.gatech.edu
Phone: 404-894-6109
Fax: 404-410-6885

RSS Twitter

Search this Website

Copyright © 2022 · Georgia Tech - Enterprise Innovation Institute