For companies selling innovative technology to the federal government, a Commercial Solutions Opening (“CSO”) can provide a path to government business that looks quite different from a conventional FAR-based solicitation. CSOs are designed to give agencies—particularly the Department of Defense (“DoD”)—greater flexibility to acquire innovative commercial products, services, and capabilities while reducing some of the
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued an important new decision addressing the rights of small businesses to compete through teaming arrangements for large, consolidated federal contracts. In Intelligence Consulting Enterprise Solutions, Inc., B-424433.3, et al. (Aug. 11, 2026), GAO sustained a protest challenging the Army’s prohibition on small business prime contractors forming
Bradley has been publishing an ongoing survey of state-level bid protest processes and procedures (see, e.g., our posts on “Bid Protests in Georgia,” “Bid Protests in the District of Columbia,” “Bid Protests in New York,” “Bid Protests in Virginia,” “Latest Update on Bid Protests in
In Strategi Consulting, LLC v. United States, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims recently held that a prior Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II awardee can bring a bid protest when an agency declines to award it Phase III work and instead routes that work to other contractors through existing task orders —
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision offers an important reminder that agencies cannot apply evaluation criteria that differ from the language of the solicitation. In Veterans Management Services, Inc., B-424182.2; B-424182.3 (June 22, 2026), GAO sustained a bid protest after finding that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) improperly limited its review of
What happens when a mentor-protégé joint venture fractures before a federal contract is awarded — and the mentor company that supplied all of the experience and past performance tries to protest the resulting contract award? The United States Court of Federal Claims answered that question decisively in IBSS v. United States, dismissing the bid
The long-anticipated award decisions for the Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement VI, commonly known as NASA SEWP VI, represent one of the most significant procurement developments in the federal marketplace. With an estimated ceiling value approaching $60 billion and expected to serve as a major governmentwide acquisition contract for information technology products and services across
A government contractor submitted an email bid on time — and still lost the contract before anyone at the agency ever saw the proposal. That is the painful reality at the center of Rick Aviation, Inc. v. United States, a June 2026 decision from the United States Court of Federal Claims that carries significant
A recent decision from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims delivers an important — and sobering — message to small businesses competing for federal innovation funding: Historical ties to foreign countries of concern can be sufficient, standing alone, to disqualify a company from receiving a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award, even when those ties
Federal contractors should be paying close attention to a growing issue in government procurement: the use of shadow AI and generative artificial intelligence by agency evaluators during proposal evaluations.
As federal agencies increasingly experiment with AI tools in procurement and acquisition processes, evaluators may be using generative AI platforms to summarize proposals, identify strengths and