Task Order | The Contracting Education Academy

August 13, 2018 By cs

How will the FY 2019 NDAA affect government procurement?

Following the Senate’s recent passage of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), we are rapidly approaching the finish line for this critical piece of legislation.

With the filing two weeks ago of the Conference Report, H. Rept. 115-863, which embodies the agreement between the Senate and the House, it appears likely that a compromise bill will go forward to the President shortly.

The NDAA contains a number of provisions that would reform the procurement process, several of which, are the focus here.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/commentary/2018/07/an-update-on-the-fy-2019-ndaa/

May 11, 2018 By cs

FAR rule implements higher dollar threshold for GAO’s protest jurisdiction over DoD, NASA, Coast Guard task orders

In a new rule announced May 1, the FAR Council implemented prior statutory changes to GAO’s bid protest jurisdiction.

For task orders issued by the Department of Defense, NASA, or the Coast Guard, the rule provides that GAO will have jurisdiction only over task orders “valued in excess of $25 million.”

For civilian agencies, GAO continues to have jurisdiction over protests of task orders “valued in excess of $10 million.” The rule also permanently repeals a pre-existing FAR clause that had set a September 30, 2016 expiration date on the ability to protest civilian agency task orders.

The new rule — codified as FAR 16.505(a)(10) — implements Section 835 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, which directed the FAR Council to establish the new DoD, NASA, and Coast Guard threshold. (The sunset date for protests of civilian agency task orders had previously been repealed by the GAO Civilian Task and Delivery Order Protest Authority Act of 2016.) According to the FAR Council, its new rule is designed to “follow[] the statute exactly.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2018/05/new-far-rule-implements-increased-minimum-dollar-threshold-for-gaos-protest-jurisdiction-over-dod-nasa-and-coast-guard-task-orders/

October 25, 2017 By cs

GSA nominee wants competition at the task order level

Emily Murphy, the nominee to be the next administrator of the General Services Administration, sailed through her hearing last week, facing few tough questions about her plans to improve federal acquisition, and promising to address long-standing issues in the Public Building Service.

However, Murphy, a former staff member for the House Small Business and Armed Services committees, did offer some further insight into where she believes federal procurement needs to go in the short term.

“Competition and reducing waste, and increasing transparency were two of the four things I’m really hoping to work on at GSA,” Murphy told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Within the Federal Acquisition Service, which does over $50 billion in contracts on behalf of other agencies each year, I’d like to work to make sure the ceiling prices that are being set for agencies are just the beginning. When we set a price on our GSA schedule contract it’s more or less like the rack rate on the back of a hotel room door, the most you will ever pay. We are trying to make sure GSA’s contracting officers and our policies support really vigorous competition at the task order level because that is the amount we actually are going to spend so we want to get the best deal there, the most competition we can there.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/hearings-oversight/2017/10/gsa-nominee-wants-competition-at-the-task-order-level/

December 26, 2016 By cs

8 companies protest $1.5 billion DHS agile buying experiment

A new Homeland Security Department (DHS) program promoting agile software development has hit a stumbling block.

The $1.54 billion Flexible Agile Support for the Homeland contract vehicle — a group of 13 vendors pre-approved to sell agile services to the department — has been halted by protests from at least eight companies not included on that list.

Washington Technology first reported the protests.

INTEGRITYOne Partners, Harmonia Holdings Group, Cybermedia Technologies, Brillient Corp., Citizant, Ventera Corp., Incentive Technology Group and BC Digital Services filed protests with the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Though Congress let GAO’s authority over civilian task orders worth more than $10 million lapse in September, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into a law a bill that makes the authority permanent.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nextgov.com/defense/2016/12/8-companies-protest-15b-dhs-agile-buying-experiment/133946

December 22, 2016 By cs

President’s signature reinstates GAO protest authority

President Obama has signed into law HR 5995, which reinstates the Government Accountability Office’s jurisdiction over protests of civilian task orders.

gao-governmentaccountabilityoffice-seal The GAO jurisdiction had expired at the end of fiscal 2016. The new law makes the GAO authority permanent.

During the two and half months since the authority expired, companies could not protest most civilian task orders. There was a little bit of a gray area involving whether there could be a protest of a task order if a defense buyer was using a civilian contract.

Several protests were filed involving this scenario, but GAO eventually ruled that it didn’t have jurisdiction and dismissed those protests.

Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/blogs/editors-notebook/2016/12/protest-authority-restored.aspx

Following the Senate’s recent passage of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), we are rapidly approaching the finish line for this critical piece of legislation.

In a new rule announced May 1, the FAR Council implemented prior statutory changes to GAO’s bid protest jurisdiction.

Emily Murphy, the nominee to be the next administrator of the General Services Administration, sailed through her hearing last week, facing few tough questions about her plans to improve federal acquisition, and promising to address long-standing issues in the Public Building Service.

A new Homeland Security Department (DHS) program promoting agile software development has hit a stumbling block.

President Obama has signed into law HR 5995, which reinstates the Government Accountability Office’s jurisdiction over protests of civilian task orders.

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