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V. David Zvenyach

The windfall that didn't come

A major theme in government contracting is figuring out "who bears the risk" for certain things. This comes up a lot in discussions around "contract type" and the differences between firm-fixed-price contracts and cost-reimbursable contracts. Typically, in a firm-fixed-price contract, the contractor bears the risk of

SAM-We-Are Not

I know this is going to sound obvious, but if you want to be a prime contractor with the federal government, you have to register in SAM. I know, I know. Look, I know. It sounds obvious. And I know it sounds like a pain. But we've talked

Make sure to check those boxes

We've talked before about NAICS arbitrage as a way to navigate government size standards for small-business set asides. Today, though, I want to talk about another tool in the toolkit: mentor-protégé joint ventures. To the uninitiated, a mentor-protégé relationship sounds like it might be sort of like a

Seller beware

Suppose you're putting together a proposal with the following facts: 1. You're the incumbent on a contract where some of the labor categories on the contract are covered under the Service Contract Act (the "SCA") and, therefore, you must pay people within those labor

The Competition Effect

A recurring theme in innovation-policy debates is whether the government should "pick winners and losers" or not. On one side of the debate, folks will argue that market forces are better at encouraging innovation. On the other side of the debate, folks will argue that the government has

The government has (size) standards

Close your eyes, imagine you're not the sort of person who reads newsletters about government contracts, and ask yourself "how big can a business be before it's no longer considered a small business?" It turns out that this is a really complicated question in

Just the cost of government business

From an industry-risk perspective, the government-contracts industry is sort of a mixed bag. On one hand, the business of government contracting is not especially volatile. Spending levels are pretty predictable, and generally resistant to market forces. For example, even though the tech industry is in the midst of a "

Apparently revolving doors can sometimes be locked?

A great parlor game to play in Beltway circles is to speculate which large government contractor a former federal official will work for when they leave public service. The "revolving door" is pretty common at all levels.[1] There are a number of legitimate and illegitimate reasons (not

The Unhappy Goldilocks Doctrine

A recurring joke in government contracting is that the government often tells people to stay tuned about something that they're interested in, publishes requests for feedback on a Friday before a three-day weekend, and then wants answers next Tuesday morning. The dark version of the recurring joke is

Bidding can be counterintuitive

You know a bid protest is going to be a fun read when the discussion section opens with: "As an initial matter, both protesters argued that BAH could not have submitted a proposal meriting a technical factor rating of outstanding given BAH’s alleged poor performance as the incumbent.