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How risky is firm-fixed price contracting? In Episode 6 of The FAR is Lava, we break down a recent HHS protest involving firm-fixed unit pricing, delayed payment risk, and how much performance risk the government can push onto a contractor. We also cover the latest RFO developments, including Kevin Rhodes continuing to work on the FAR overhaul after leaving OFPP, the Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act, CMMC updates, and a Federal Circuit decision on whether an IDIQ awardee can protest other winners. Pasted text Pasted text

We also dig into GAO’s warning about limited beneficial-ownership information on federal awardees, add a $93 million Medicare fraud scheme to the Naughty List, explain why DoD contractors should “ask for the receipts” during debriefings, and answer a listener question about BPAs and the roles of contracting officers, contract specialists, CORs, and ordering officials. Pasted text Pasted text

In this episode:

• Firm-fixed price risk and the Acacia Center for Justice protest
• Revolutionary FAR Overhaul updates
• Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act
• CMMC Phase 2 follow-up
• IDIQ awardee protest standing
• Beneficial ownership and federal contracting fraud
• The Naughty List: $93 million Medicare fraud
• DoD debriefings and Source Selection Decision Documents
• BPAs: what they are and who does what

If you work in federal contracting, acquisition, procurement, program management, or government contracting, subscribe for weekly breakdowns of the FAR, RFO, protests, policy changes, and federal procurement news.

#FederalContracting #GovernmentContracting #FederalAcquisition #FAR #RFO #Procurement #GAOProtest #CMMC #IDIQ #FirmFixedPrice

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AI is now showing up in federal source selections, and in this episode, we break down what happened when the Army tested an AI evaluation tool on real proposals during an active procurement.

We start with the headline story, then go deeper into the TRAX International court case to look at how those AI-generated evaluations ended up in the administrative record, what the court actually found, and what the case teaches the acquisition workforce about discretion, professional judgment, and defensible decision-making.

We also cover:

• OpenAI pausing model training after AI agents behaved unexpectedly on U.S. government websites
• GSA’s claim that it identified $1.2 billion in suspected COVID-related contracting fraud
• Our latest Naughty List addition a former SBA and IRS employee involved in a $3.5 million pandemic-relief fraud scheme
• GSA’s proposal to move Schedule ordering procedures out of FAR Part 8 and into the GSAR
• The RFO rewrite of FAR Part 8 and the new hierarchy of mandatory and required-use sources
• Why the federal government has more than 229 contract-writing systems — and what GSA’s Acquisition QSMO is trying to do about it
• SBA’s latest 8(a) changes, including defense-critical prioritization and “potential for success” reviews
• Why industry is being told to take more supply-chain risk and what contracting officers can do on the government side
• This Day in Contract History
• Listener questions on CPARS access and prototype OTAs

The FAR is Lava teaches the FAR and the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul through current federal procurement news, court cases, protests, policy changes, and the occasional person who earns a spot on the Naughty List.

Daily Procurement Newsletter: https://elink.io/p/dailydose-9ffda63

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Want your question featured on the next episode? Email us at: AskASI@asigovt.com

In Episode 4 of The FAR is Lava, Ben Bunting and Will Roberts break down the federal acquisition news to teach you the FAR and RFO.

This week:

• We roast a congressional exchange over the $13.1 million "no-bid" contract to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

• The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul moves from its rebellious phase into formal rulemaking, with major proposed changes affecting commercial acquisitions, negotiations, late proposals and Best-in-Class contracts.

• GSA raises federal lodging per diem rates, so congratulations: you may be able to afford eggs again.

• SBA receives heavy opposition to its proposed small-business size standards, which could allow companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to qualify as small.

• A former CISA employee pleads guilty after secretly working multiple government contractor jobs and claiming workdays as long as 33 hours.

• The cancellation of CIO-SP4 raises a larger question: Is GSA slowly swallowing the federal acquisition market?

• The Pentagon pauses CMMC Phase Two while reviewing more than 1,100 industry responses. The “positive response” is largely support for the pause, not support for CMMC as written.

• In this week’s GAO protest, H2L Solutions challenges the VA after submitting a lower-priced quotation but receiving a Low Confidence technical rating. GAO also warns protesters about inaccurate citations bearing the hallmarks of unchecked AI use.

We also answer listener questions about whether BPAs inside IDIQ contracts can become a sole-source loophole and what recourse a contractor may have when an OTA prototype fails and the government later relaxes the requirements.

Daily Procurement Newsletter:
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The FAR is Lava is sponsored by ASI Government.

Editorial work by Anne Laurent.

Produced in collaboration with Studio Podcast Suites.

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