Where oh Where? Choosing the Correct Forum for Government Contracts Disputes

If a government contractor has a bone to pick, figuring out who to complain to can feel a lot like a customer service phone tree. If you press three instead of one, you can find yourself being transferred to another department after hours of being on hold. Or you can get completely different answers depending on who you speak to.

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Government Contractors: Help! Inflation's Killing Us--Government: We're Here to Help (or not)

The Director of Defense Pricing and Contracting recently issued a memo to guide contracting officers in response to the impacts of inflation on federal contracts. Read on to find out how there’s some hope for future contracts, but little relief for contractors who hold existing fixed-price contracts.

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State Fringe Benefit Requirements and the SCA and DBA Price Adjustment Clauses

Careful drafting of CBAs, particularly on service contracts, should include some attention to language expressly making any state mandated fringe benefits into a CBA contractual requirement. At least that would be prudent for a contractor looking to get a price adjustment for state mandated benefits.

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What's Plain is Plain? Supreme Court Takes Case to Resolve Divergent Views on FLSA Salary Basis Test

The Supreme Court this week agreed to hear an appeal to resolve differing interpretations of the Department of Labor’s “salary basis” regulations. Both sides are adamant that the “plain text” of one provision or the “plain terms” of another compel their favored result—that a highly compensated employee should, or should not, be entitled to overtime pay.

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Court Holds Challenge to SCA Coverage of Cooperative Agreement Not Ripe for Appeal Due to Lack of Final Agency Action 

A U.S. District Court judge holds that a contractor had not received final agency action to allow an Administrative Procedure Act suit. Thus a challenge to DOL’s determination that the Service Contract Act applies to cooperative agreements is not ripe for appeal.

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There But for the Grace… Government Contracts Rules Lay Traps Aplenty

From time to time, I see a government contracts case that sends chills down my spine. A recent decision painfully reminds me of how the law governing our unique parcel in the vast lands of the legal world is rife with hard-to-see pools of quicksand that can trap even the most sophisticated contractors.

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