Effective January 6, 2007, the Boards of Contract Appeals for the General Services Administration, the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs will cease to exist and will become part of the new Civilian Board of Contract Appeals. All of the judges of these boards and their pending cases will be transferred to the new Civilian Board of Contract Appeals. This consolidation was authorized in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 and notice was published in the Federal Register on November 9, 2006 of the consolidation.
The agencies of the Department of Defense, (Army, Navy, Air Force), NASA and the United States Postal Service will continue to maintain their own boards of contract appeals.
Since the rules of procedure for the various civilian boards of contract appeals are nearly identical, we do not anticipate any disruption of the disputes process as a result of this consolidation. The transfer of existing appeals should be a seamless transition from a procedural standpoint. When the Engineer Board of Contract Appeals merged with the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, the transition was smoothly accomplished and the process was not disrupted.