Government Contracts

On September 30, 2021, the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council (“CAAC”) released a memorandum authorizing all civilian United States government agencies to issue a class deviation to implement Executive Order 14042, “Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors.” Attached to the CAAC memo is a FAR Deviation Clause (the “Clause”) that CAAC states “is...

Federal contractor employees—with some limited exceptions—must be vaccinated by December 8, 2021 per guidance released by the Biden administration on Friday.1 The mandate applies to part- and full-time employees of contractors (or subcontractors) who are working either directly on or “in connection with” a contract, including indirect support of a contract like “human resources, billing,...

On Thursday, September 9, 2021, President Biden announced new federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements, outlined below, which will be incumbent on federal government contractors and their employees, federal branch employees, as well as private sector employers with over 100 employees. Federal Government Contractors President Biden signed an Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was tasked with producing guidelines on vendors’ source code testing in accordance with President Biden’s Cybersecurity Executive Order published on May 12, 2021. NIST published these guidelines on July 7, 2021. The guidelines include “recommended minimums for verification of code by developers.” 

The United States Supreme Court released its long-awaited opinion in the consolidated cases of Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation et al. and Alaska Native Village Corp. Association et al. v.Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation et al.* After Congress passed the CARES Act allocating $8 billion to “Tribal governments”, the dispute arosewhether...

On May 20, 2021, The Department of Defense published a proposed rule that codifies and expands the DOD’s enhanced debriefing program. The enhanced debriefing program was initially called for by Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018 and implemented by the DOD through a class deviation.  Class deviations are generally temporary authorizations...