Two years ago, we walked through the basics of Public Assistance (PA) arbitration before the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) in FEMA Public Assistance Arbitrations at the CBCA. Since then, FEMA has been operating under real strain: a large backlog of pending disaster declarations, an Office of the Secretary of Homeland Security review
A federal judge in Massachusetts recently ordered the Department of Defense (DoD) to pay $450,447 in attorneys’ fees to the Association of American Universities (AAU), after finding that DoD’s now-defunct “Rate Cap Policy” was not just unlawful, but never substantially justified in the first place. The August 5, 2026, ruling in Association of American Universities
For federal subcontractors, a prime contractor’s failure to pay or consistent pattern of late payments can quickly become a serious cash-flow problem. However, federal subcontractors typically have several avenues for recovering amounts owed. The right strategy depends heavily on the type of federal contract, the subcontract, whether the government has already paid the prime contractor
Section 1806 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 fundamentally altered the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) landscape by raising the statutory threshold for mandatory CAS coverage from $2.5 million to $35 million. On September 1, 2026, the Cost Accounting Standards Board published a Final Rule implementing that congressional change and making several
In ACC Construction Co., Inc., ASBCA Nos. 63528, 64067 (July 16, 2026), the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals held that payment estimates withholding liquidated damages are not contracting officer final decisions — and do not start the Contract Disputes Act’s 90-day appeal clock — unless a properly authorized contracting officer signs them
The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently published two Federal Register notices that together represent the most sweeping rewrite of small business size standards since SBA adopted NAICS as its organizing framework in 2000. The first is a proposed rule (RIN 3245–AI67, Docket No. SBA–2026–0199) setting new size standards for 338 industry groups and industries. The
On August 27, 2026, Judge Rita F. Lin of the Northern District of California ruled largely in favor of Anthropic PBC in its suit against the Department of War and other federal agencies over the government’s decision to bar all federal use of Anthropic’s AI products and prohibit defense contractors from doing business with the
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
A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, DOGE Wall of Receipts: More Transparency Needed on How Savings Are Derived from Contract, Grant, and Lease Terminations (GAO-26-108615, Aug. 2026), takes a hard look at the $110 billion in purported contract, grant, and lease “savings” that the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has publicized since
On August 20, 2026, President Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 17 (NSPM-17), establishing a new National Space Transportation Policy and replacing the policy that had governed federal space transportation since 2013. The goal is ambitious: By 2030, America must be capable of supporting more than 1,000 launches and reentries every year. For perspective