The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued to Congress its annual bid protest report (PDF). As discussed below, this year’s report is noteworthy for multiple reasons, including that it shows that protesters continued to receive some form of relief from the procuring agency in more than half of the protests filed with the GAO in FY 2025, and that the GAO’s use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) decreased by approximately 30%in FY 2025. The report is also noteworthy in that it includes, for the first time, “unreasonable rejection of proposal” as one of the most prevalent reasons for sustaining protests.
Link to What is GAO’s bid protest annual report to Congress? What is GAO’s bid protest annual report to Congress?
The Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 (CICA), 31 U.S.C. § 3554(e)(2), requires the Comptroller General to report to Congress each instance in which a federal agency did not fully implement a recommendation made by the GAO in connection with a bid protest decided the prior fiscal year and each instance in which a final decision in a protest was not rendered within
100 days after the date the protest was submitted to the GAO (there were no such occurrences during FY 2020).
CICA also requires that the GAO include in the annual report a “summary of the most prevalent grounds for sustaining protests” during the preceding year. Moreover, the GAO includes in the report “data concerning [its] overall protest filings for the fiscal year.”
Link to What are the highlights of the 2025 report? What are the highlights of the 2025 report?
First, protesters received some relief in 52% of the protests that were brought before the GAO in FY 2025. The GAO reports this statistic as an “effectiveness rate” — i.e., the percentage of protests where the protester obtained “some form of relief from the agency… either as a result of voluntary agency corrective action or [the GAO] sustaining the protest.”
As the following chart from the GAO’s report thus shows, protesters received some form of relief from the agency in more than half of the protests filed with the GAO in FY 2025:
Link to Bid Protest Statistics for Fiscal Years 2021-2025 Bid Protest Statistics for Fiscal Years 2021-2025
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
| Cases Filed1 | 1688 (down 6%) | 1803 (down 11%)2 | 2025 (increase of 22%) | 1658 (down 12%) | 1897 (down 12%) |
| Cases Closed3 | 1737 | 1706 | 2041 | 1655 | 2017 |
| Merit (Sustain + Deny) Decisions | 380 | 386 | 608 | 455 | 581 |
| Number of Sustains | 53 | 61 | 188 | 59 | 85 |
| Sustain Rate | 14% | 16% | 31% | 13% | 15% |
| Effectiveness Rate4 | 52% | 52% | 57% | 51% | 48% |
| ADR5 (cases used) | 53 | 76 | 69 | 74 | 76 |
| ADR Success Rate6 | 91% | 92% | 90% | 92% | 84% |
| Hearings7 | .5% (3 cases) | .2% (1 case) | 2% (22 cases) | .27% (2 cases) | 1% (13 cases) |
Although not evident from the chart, this trend has existed since FY 2020, with a brief dip to 48% in FY 2021, after hovering between 42% and 47% from FY 2008 through FY 2019.
Second, as the foregoing chart shows, the GAO utilized ADR in only 53 protests in FY 2025 compared to 76 protests in FY 2014. This is the lowest number of ADR proceedings since data has been available starting in 2001. The report does not provide a reason for this noticeable decrease in the GAO’s utilization of ADR, and it will be interesting to see if this decrease represents the “new normal.” In that light, there appears to be a rough correlation in the number of hearings conducted compared to the number of ADR proceedings, with both on the decline over the years. One possible explanation is that there has been substantial turnover in the GAO ranks over the past several years, with experienced protest attorneys either retiring, entering private practice, or moving to other agencies. Thus, the lower number of hearings and ADR proceedings could reflect a cultural shift in how the newer GAO protest attorneys view the utility of such tools.
Link to What were the most prevalent reasons for sustaining protests? What were the most prevalent reasons for sustaining protests?
The report states that the “most prevalent reasons” for sustaining protests during FY 2020 were
(1) unreasonable technical evaluation; (2) unreasonable cost or price evaluation; and (3) unreasonable rejection of proposal. Of note, it appears that this is the first time that the GAO has reported that “unreasonable rejection of proposal” was among the most prevalent reasons for sustaining protests.
As a point of comparison, the most prevalent reasons for sustaining protests during FY 2024 were (1) unreasonable technical evaluation; (2) flawed selection decision; and (3) unreasonable cost or price evaluation.
Link to Wait, I have more questions! Wait, I have more questions!
If you have any questions about the GAO’s annual bid protest report or about bid protests generally, please do not hesitate to contact Aron Beezley or Patrick Quigley.