Small Business

On March 27, 2020, the Department of Defense (“DoD”) issued a class deviation in response to Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), which allows agencies to reimburse, at the minimum applicable contract billing rates for government contractors to be at a ‘ready state.’ Recently, DoD issued a...

Less than a year after Maryland limited competitive restraints employers may place on low-wage employees, Virginia passed a law prohibiting non-compete clauses for low-wage employees. On April 9, 2020, Virginia Governor, Ralph Northam, signed SB 480 into law, which will go into effect on July 1, 2020. The new law states that on and...

The Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and the Department of the Treasury (“DOT”) have been collaborating on guidance for compliance with the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”).  But the “guidance” has been much more than guidance—it has taken on the aura of a rulemaking, promulgating interpretations of the underlying statute and establishing standards of enforcement. Further,...

Most bid protests are filed with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) or brought before the Court of Federal Claims. However, there’s a third, often over-looked, forum to bring a bid protest – before the procuring agency itself. Agency-level protests were officially authorized by President Clinton in 1995 and are governed by Section 33.103 of...

IMPORTANT UPDATE TO THIS BLOG POST: On May 5, 2020 the SBA extended the safe harbor deadline by which recipients of PPP loans may payback the loan in its entirety and avoid the economic necessity certification to May 14. As we previously addressed on April 28, the SBA and the Department of the Treasury...

As we have written about extensively, the CARES Act enacted in response to the coronavirus crisis established a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to provide forgivable loans to small businesses to sustain their payrolls. However, the loan can only be forgiven if certain conditions are met. In mid-April, the PPP received public scrutiny after several...