Last month, in National Government Services, Inc. (“NGS”) v. United States—a pre-award bid protest handled by Crowell & Moring—the Federal Circuit ruled that “workload caps” imposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) in its administration of the Medicare Program violated the Competition in Contracting Act’s (“CICA”) “full-and-open competition” requirement. In so doing, the Federal Circuit reversed a Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”) decision that upheld the caps (a prior GAO decision…

Following the announcement of the White House’s Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (EO) and the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Artificial Intelligence Strategy (AI Strategy) in February, as reported on here, the United States recently endorsed the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Council’s (OECD) Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence (Recommendation) – the world’s first intergovernmental policy guidelines for Artificial Intelligence (AI).  In the Recommendation, the OECD sets forth the “Principles on…

The Digital Revolution is here. Contractors are reinventing their products, customer experiences, and business models — and transforming the public sector marketplace as a result.  Meanwhile, government agencies are increasingly using emerging technologies and developing plans to promote and incentivize their use. Join us on May 8, 2018, at 10:30 AM Eastern, as Crowell & Moring attorneys Gail Zirkelbach, John Gibson, and Mana Lombardo lead a discussion highlighting regulatory and contractual compliance considerations that are pivotal to…

Crowell & Moring’s 35th annual Ounce of Prevention Seminar (OOPS) is just around the corner, taking place on May 7 and 8 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington. At this year’s seminar, “The Challenging Climb to Reach New Heights,” the Government Contracts Group will provide updates and insight in a variety of areas, including ethics and compliance, bid protests, False Claims Act enforcement, cybersecurity, international issues affecting government contractors, and more. Check back here for…

On March 21, 2019, the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Innovation Board (“DIB”) released a report, Software is Never Done: Refactoring the Acquisition Code for Competitive Advantage (“the Report”), summarizing DIB’s Software Acquisition and Practices (SWAP) study, which was mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. The two-year study involved conversations with Congress, the DoD, federally-funded research and development centers, contractors, and the public focused on ways in which DoD…

Much that has been written about the bid protest reforms in the Section 809 Panel’s final report has focused on Recommendations 66-69, which expressly address (and propose changes to) the protest process at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) and the Court of Federal Claims (“COFC”). But the 809 Panel’s most impactful recommended changes to the protest process actually may be contained in Recommendation 35 (“Rec. 35”). There, in the context of a discussion of…