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Last year at this time, we reported on the prospect of a partial government shutdown due to Congress’s failure to enact appropriations legislation to fund all aspects of the government for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021. In that case, the bill was passed and life continued. This year the stakes are higher. Though Congress started early, preparing separate appropriations bills for FY 2022 this summer, they still have not been passed. In addition, we are seeing bills for higher levels of spending than in the previous years, since the spending limits set in the Obama-era Budget Control Act of FY 2011 have now ended.
Continue Reading So … Where Is The Money – We’ve Seen This Movie Before But The Stakes Are High

On September 24, 2021, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued its hotly anticipated workplace safety guidelines as required by Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors. The guidance, which is sure to spur as many questions as it answers, at a high level does the following:
Continue Reading Vaccinations Required for Covered Federal Contractor Employees by December 8

As reported in an earlier alert and blog, on September 9, 2021, President Biden rolled out his Path Out of the Pandemic plan (the “Plan”) to combat the spread of COVID-19. Two central portions of the Plan include issuance of (1) an instruction to the Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a directive that requires companies with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforces are either fully vaccinated or their workers test negative for COVID-19 on a weekly basis before coming to work, and (2) an Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors (EO) that requires that covered government contractors and subcontractors at any tier comply with all guidance published by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (or the “Task Force”) that is determined to “promote economy and efficiency in Federal contracting” by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, for those contractor or subcontractor workplace locations where individuals are “working on or in connection with a Federal Government contract or contract-like instrument.”
Continue Reading Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors – COVID Task Force Guidance Issued and Opportunity to Comment Available

On September 9, 2021, President Biden rolled out his Path Out of the Pandemic plan (the “Plan”) to combat the spread of COVID-19. As reported in an earlier alert, this Plan contains a number of moving parts and coverage that remains to be finalized.  Of note to government contractors is the fact that the Plan includes (1) an instruction to the Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a directive that requires companies with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforces are either fully vaccinated or their workers test negative for COVID-19 on a weekly basis before coming to work, and (2) an Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors (EO) that requires contractors and subcontractors at any tier to comply with all guidance published by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, and determined to “promote economy and efficiency in Federal contracting” by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, for those contractor or subcontractor workplace locations where individuals are “working on or in connection with a Federal Government contract or contract-like instrument.”  The Plan and, in particular, these two prongs leave much to be defined and implemented.  The devil truly will be in the details of the rules to be prepared and issued, as well as in whether and when the OMB, individual agencies, and contracting and agreements officers determine to roll them out to all, or a portion, of Federal government contractors.
Continue Reading Biden Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors –A Number of Questions

The Remedy of Divestiture: Steves and Sons, Inc. v. JELD-WEN, Inc.

For what is believed to be the first time ever, a private plaintiff successfully challenged an already consummated merger under antitrust law and won divestiture as part of its remedy. Does this pose a potential increased risk of antitrust enforcement remedies of divestiture only…