Modernizing AbilityOne: Employment Growth, Domestic Sourcing, and Acquisition Integrity in FY 2025
Summary of the U.S. AbilityOne Commission’s 2025 Report to the President: FY25 job growth to ~41,000, $4.7B in federal sales, domestic sourcing emphasis (Buy American/Make PPE), national-security manufacturing contributions, expanded accountability and competition policies, and IT modernization (PLIMS 2.0) to drive “best value.”
Federal Telework after Return-to-Office: GAO’s Findings on Service Delivery, Workforce Risk, and SSA’s Planning Gap
GAO’s January 2026 report on federal telework reviews BIA, SSA, and State’s Consular Affairs from 2019–2025 and finds telework fell sharply after the January 2025 return-to-office directive. GAO highlights workforce-retention pressures and recommends SSA update its human capital plan and evaluate telework’s performance effects.
VA’s “CCN Next Gen” IDIQ: A $700B Re-Architecture of Community Care Purchasing, Oversight, and Incentives
Federal News Network reports VA is preparing a $700B, 10-year “CCN Next Gen” IDIQ to restructure community care purchasing. VA says it will strengthen program management, broaden competition to regional vendors, add on-ramps/off-ramps, and shift toward value-based payment and utilization management—amid bipartisan oversight and privatization concerns.
European Public AI: Reframing Sovereignty as Public Digital Infrastructure
Summary of Tarkowski & Sieker’s 2026 policy brief proposing “European Public AI” as public digital infrastructure—open, mission-driven, and democratically governed. Explains risks of AI market concentration, Europe’s cloud/model dependencies, and a full-stack strategy spanning compute, data commons, open-source models, and purposeful deployment.
Fiscal Year 2025’s Record False Claims Act Recoveries: What $6.8B Signals About Enforcement Priorities
DOJ reported a record $6.8B in FY2025 False Claims Act settlements and judgments, driven largely by health care, with notable growth in procurement, cybersecurity, pandemic, and trade-fraud enforcement. This summary highlights the data, illustrative cases, and practical compliance implications for contractors and grantees.
Navy Vessel Operational Testing: Why User Input, Test Assets, and Digital Infrastructure Matter
GAO’s public report GAO-26-108781 finds the Navy’s operational test and evaluation for shipbuilding is constrained by inconsistent “user” (warfighter) participation, uncertainty around a critical self-defense test ship, and a fragmented approach to digital test infrastructure. Key takeaways and implications for federal contractors.
Pentagon Orders Line-by-Line Review of SBA 8(a) Sole-Source Awards: Compliance, Mission Alignment, and Pass-Through Risk
A Pentagon-directed review of SBA 8(a) sole-source contracts signals heightened scrutiny of mission relevance, subcontracting pass-throughs, and documentation. Drawing on HSToday reporting by Megan Norris, this analysis explains the legal context, the enforcement backdrop, and what disadvantaged small businesses and their partners should do now.
Data Equity as a Contracting Imperative: What Wang et al.’s Framework Means for Federal Contractors
A narrative summary of Wang et al. (JAMA Health Forum) on “data equity” and ten core concepts—fairness, transparency, bias control, generalizability, privacy, and more—and why federal contractors should treat equitable data practices as a compliance, performance, and mission requirement across the data life cycle.
Restoring “Common Sense” in Federal Acquisition: What the Latest GSA Direction Signals to Contractors
A summary of GSA’s “Restoring Common Sense to Government Acquisition,” explaining how OneGov IT agreements, procurement centralization, MAS “rightsizing,” expanded Transactional Data Reporting, travel modernization, and fleet consolidation may reshape competition, compliance, and pricing strategy across the federal marketplace.
Food Safety Modernization Act Implementation: Why GAO Says FDA Must Finish the Job
GAO’s January 2026 report finds FDA has built FSMA’s preventive framework through nine foundational rules and completed most statutory requirements, but key guidance and traceability elements remain unfinished. GAO urges timelines, milestones, and a performance-management process so FDA can demonstrate whether the rules are reducing foodborne illness.
GAO Report Reveals Declining Air Service in Small U.S. Communities and Implications for Federal Contractors
The GAO’s 2024 report on small community air service highlights declining flight departures, rising costs, and increasing federal subsidies under the Essential Air Service program—trends that create new infrastructure, technology, and logistics opportunities for federal contractors supporting DOT and FAA initiatives.
GovTech Maturity Index 2025: What the World Bank’s Latest Snapshot Signals for Public-Sector Digital Markets
The World Bank’s GovTech Maturity Index 2025 reviews digital transformation across 197 economies using 48 indicators. This summary highlights the widening digital divide, progress in cloud/interoperability and digital ID, persistent gaps in service portals and civic tech, and what these trends may mean for federal government contractors.
Understanding DFARS 252.204-7021 Through the Contracting Officer’s Hidden Checklist
Jacob Horne explains that DFARS 252.204-7021 is not merely a contract clause—it is the visible edge of a contracting officer procedure set in DFARS 204.75 that dictates when CMMC applies, when awards and options are prohibited, and how “current” CMMC status is verified in SPRS using a CMMC UID tied to a specific assessed enclave.
GAO’s Warning Shot on Federal Awards: Documentation Gaps That Elevate Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Risk
GAO reviewed five major federal award programs and found that, except for FCC’s E-Rate, agencies often lacked fully documented fraud-prevention policies tied to OMB and GAO leading practices. The report signals tighter monitoring, clearer antifraud expectations, and greater audit readiness demands for federal contractors and recipients.
Markon LLC (B-423767): Cost Realism, Unstated Criteria, and the Limits of “Off-the-Record” Instructions
GAO sustained Markon’s protest because CIA’s cost realism adjustment relied on oral “industry Q&A” instructions that were never incorporated into the final RFP. The decision reinforces a core rule for contractors: evaluation turns on the solicitation and the contemporaneous record, not informal guidance.
The Claims Reality Check: What FY2025 ASBCA/CBCA Numbers Say About Your Odds—and When ADR Actually Pays
FY2025 ASBCA and CBCA statistics challenge the myth that contractors cannot win CDA appeals. Learn what merits outcomes imply about your odds and when ADR is most likely to deliver faster, lower-variance resolutions.
When the FAR Isn’t the Rulebook: A Quiet Reminder from the GAO OIG’s Latest Semiannual Report
A GAO OIG case closed on a simple premise—GAO is not subject to the FAR. This post explains why that matters for contractors, how “FAR-default” thinking creates proposal and compliance risk, and what to do instead when pursuing work with entities operating under different procurement authorities.
“When ‘TBD’ Means TBD”: Solvere Technical Group and the Limits of Unstated Evaluation Criteria
Solvere Technical Group (GAO B-423785) is a must-read staffing-plan decision: GAO sustained where Navy penalized an offeror for using “TBD” non-key personnel exactly as the solicitation directed and for relying on a six-month certification window the RFP expressly allowed. Key lessons for service contractors on unstated evaluation criteria and cost-risk “double counting.”
Cost Rules, Rewritten: Why FY 2026 NDAA Section 1826 Matters to Defense Contractors
FY 2026’s NDAA Section 1826 directs DoD to exempt many “nontraditional defense contractors” from FAR Part 31 cost principles, certified cost or pricing data, and certain business systems rules. Learn what this deregulation changes, what remains, and why it matters for pricing, audit risk, and capture strategy.
Happy Holidays from Fed Contract Pros: Two Practical Tools to Strengthen Your GovCon Execution
Explore two new GovCon digital downloads designed to improve proposal compliance and pricing execution: the GovCon BoE Blueprint and the Section L/M Compliance Crosswalk. Build stronger traceability, reduce rework, and strengthen defensibility from solicitation to submission.