Building Trustworthy AI: Why the World Bank’s 2025 framework matters for federal contractors
World Bank’s 2025 “Building Trustworthy AI” translates global AI ethics into operational tools—explainability, fairness, privacy, and governance—tailored to public programs. For U.S. federal contractors, it foreshadows RFP requirements, audit artifacts, and performance controls. Use its checklists and PETs guidance to strengthen proposals, MLOps, and compliance.
Spatial Data and Cybersecurity: From Asset to Attack Surface
Summary of Louai Alarabi’s World Economic Forum article on why spatial data now underpins logistics, cities, disaster response, and national security—and why its confidentiality, integrity, and availability require layered cybersecurity across governance, technical controls, threat intelligence, and emerging tools like AI, blockchain, and privacy-preserving analytics.
Illuminating “Dark Data” in Government: Why Federal Contractors Should Care
A new fellows paper by Heather Openshaw shows most government data is “dark”—unused, risky, and costly. It explains how AI and digital public infrastructure can unlock value only if governance, consent, and data hygiene come first. Here’s why that matters for U.S. federal contractors’ capture, compliance, and solution design.
Extreme Heat, FEMA, and the Funding Gap: Why GAO’s New Report Matters for Federal Contractors
GAO’s new report (GAO-25-107474) finds extreme heat affects 97% of U.S. counties, yet FEMA funding and policies only marginally support heat as a primary hazard. No heat-only disaster declarations, few BRIC awards, and new rules curtail stand-alone heat retrofits. Federal contractors should pursue multi-hazard projects, strengthen BCA evidence, and align proposals to programs where heat is a co-benefit.
Here’s a Look at Federal Agencies’ Shutdown Contingency Plans—and Why They Matter to Contractors
A concise agency-by-agency overview of federal shutdown contingency plans shows which missions continue, which pause, and how COR availability, funding, and approvals will affect contractor performance, billing, and staffing. Essential reading for risk triage, cash flow planning, and communications during the FY26 appropriations lapse.
GAO’s 2025 Category Management Update: Why Federal Contractors Should Pay Attention
GAO’s 2025 snapshot on category management signals a decisive shift toward centralized, data-driven federal purchasing through GSA and preferred vehicles. Learn why this matters for contractors—consolidating pathways, price transparency, small-business goals, and how to position bids, pricing, and teaming for the next phase of federal buying.
Navigating a Federal Government Shutdown: What Contractors Should Do Now
Guidance for federal contractors to navigate a government shutdown: follow agency lapse plans, secure written CO direction, manage cash and workforce prudently, maintain security and property protections, and document every decision for faster restart and potential cost recovery. Reflects the latest OMB context on shutdown planning.
Open vs. Conventional SBIR/STTR Topics
GAO’s 2025 report on SBIR/STTR finds open topics now account for about half of FY 2023 awards and increase competition, but inconsistent definitions across agencies hinder outcome measurement. SBA plans guidance to standardize labels. Federal contractors should adjust capture strategies and prepare for policy changes that may reshape pipelines and metrics.
Unified FAR Agenda Signals Tightening Cyber, Supply-Chain, and OCI Controls—What Contractors Should Expect in 2026
The Sept. 22, 2025 FAR Unified Agenda previews major compliance shifts for federal contractors in 2026: CUI harmonization, incident-reporting attestations, secure-software requirements, FASCSA exclusion orders, Section 889 enterprise-use bans, and revamped OCI rules. Here’s why these items matter and how to prepare.
The Transparency in Contract Pricing Act of 2025: Why It Matters for Federal Contractors
Proposed DoD legislation would require contractors on sole-source sustainment awards to notify contracting officers within 30 days of significant price increases (25%/50% thresholds), with DCAA reporting noncompliance to FAPIIS. Learn what triggers notice, how to build controls, and why early price transparency protects awards and past performance.
Faster, Smarter Buying: New FAR “Companion”
The FAR Council’s 2025 “FAR Companion” accelerates commercial buying with RFQ-centric procedures up to $7.5M (and $15M for certain emergencies), emphasizes comparative evaluations on existing vehicles, and tightens debrief/protest timing.
When Documentation Determines Destiny: GAO Sustains IPRO’s Protest in CMS QIN-QIO Award
GAO sustained IPRO’s protest of CMS’s QIN-QIO Region 1 award because CMS failed to document how the awardee met a prime-only eligibility test. Technical and tradeoff challenges were denied. The ruling highlights that JV/subcontractor structures must be reconciled to solicitation language and that contemporaneous analysis—not post-hoc rationales—controls.
DOD’s Cyber Force Is Bigger—and More Duplicative—Than Many Think
GAO’s 2025 review of DOD cyberspace operations counts ~440 units, 61k personnel, and 9.5k contractors, and flags overlap in training and among 23 CSSPs. With DOD concurring on consolidation assessments, federal contractors should prepare for larger, joint standards–driven competitions across training and enterprise cyber defense.
GAO Sustains Protest on Past Performance and Tradeoff: Why Enviremedial Services, Inc. Matters for Contractors
GAO sustained ESI’s protest in a best-value facilities maintenance award, finding improper attribution and documentation of the awardee’s past performance and an inadequately reasoned tradeoff despite a small price advantage. The case underscores strict prime-only past performance rules, JV/affiliate pitfalls, and the need for qualitative tradeoffs.
Sovereign “Public AI” and Why It Matters to Federal Contractors
Apertus, a Swiss “public AI,” signals a shift toward sovereign, open, and auditable AI infrastructure. For U.S. federal contractors, OMB M-24-10 and the NAIRR pilot point to solicitations that reward transparent data, reproducible evaluation, security, and governance. Prepare for contracts where compliance and lifecycle stewardship rival model performance.
SSA’s IT Acquisition Workforce Gaps—and Why Contractors Should Care
GAO’s August 2025 report on SSA’s IT acquisition workforce finds staffing, data, and training gaps amid procurement consolidation to GSA. With IT obligations declining and services dominating spend, federal contractors should expect longer cycles, tighter oversight, and more competition on GWACs—and respond with friction-reducing proposals and measurable outcomes.
Military Moves, Measured: Why GAO’s Review of DOD’s Relocation Reforms Matters to Federal Contractors
GAO’s Sept. 2025 report on DOD’s military moves program explains why the Global Household Goods Contract failed: unreliable capacity data, blind spots in performance metrics, and unclear costs. Federal contractors should note the implications for pricing, telemetry, subcontractor incentives, and SCA compliance in future, large-scale service transitions.
The FAR Part 7 Line-Out: Why It Matters for Contractors
The FAR Overhaul’s line-out for Part 7 streamlines acquisition planning by reserving FAR 7.105 and shifting “how-to” detail to non-regulatory Practitioner materials, elevating agency procedures and class deviations. Contractors should monitor local policy, validate planning assumptions early, and track ongoing feedback windows to manage risk.
DFARS Final Rule on CMMC: What It Means for Federal Contractors
DoD’s final DFARS rule makes CMMC a condition of award, tying eligibility to current SPRS-posted status, UIDs, and annual affirmations. It adds a 180-day conditional window, clarifies phased implementation, tightens subcontractor flowdown, and formalizes program-office level determinations—raising high-stakes, ongoing compliance for primes and subs across the defense supply chain.
GAO Clarifies Small-Business Participation Must Cover Surge When Measured Against Total Estimated Task-Order Amount
GAO’s Sept. 2, 2025 decision in Resource Management Concepts clarifies that when solicitations measure small-business participation against the total estimated task-order amount, agencies must include surge. Contractors must narratively allocate surge to small businesses—pricing formulas alone won’t suffice—under SeaPort-NxG and similar DoD task orders.