GovCon & Trade
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
You are reading the January 2024 Update of the Bass, Berry & Sims Enforcement Roundup, where we bring notable enforcement actions, policy changes, interesting news articles, and a bit of our insight to your inbox. To stay up to date, subscribe to our GovCon & Trade blog. If you have questions about any actions addressed in the Roundup, please contact the international trade team.
Whistleblower Network News
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
On February 8, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC , a Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) whistleblower case with widespread implications for the ability of whistleblowers to seek anti-retaliation protections under federal whistleblower laws. The Supreme Court ruled that whistleblowers do not need to prove retaliatory intent in order to be protected under SOX.
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GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
By Chuck Brooks, President of Brooks Consulting International Read part one here Securing space systems is imperative. Satellite security must be comprehensive, covering every facet of both terrestrial and orbiting satellites, including end-user routers and ground communications systems. There is a non-kinetic threat to space assets.
FedScoop
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has proven to be a critical partner and resource over the past five years for federal cybersecurity. But as CISA enters the second half of its first decade, the cyber agency and its Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative should focus on better governmentwide coordination and tougher security standards, a panel of federal IT officials said this week.
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Despite the ongoing transformation of the supply chain and logistics landscape, the steadfast importance of carrier safety remains a core principle. From prioritizing preventative maintenance to optimizing fleet utilization, the fundamentals persist. If you’re overlooking and neglecting essential safety precautions today, this could result in expensive repairs and potential safety hazards in the future. 🚧 Join Jeff Dickinson for a conversation on how to mitigate risk, enforce compliance,
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Marlin McFate , a more than 25-year technology industry executive, has joined data security software developer Cohesity as f ederal chief technology officer and chief information security officer. He most recently served as CTO for the public sector at Riverbed Technology.
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
As the Department of Defense pursues next-generation capabilities and technological dominance on the battlefield, speed and agility in the research, development, testing and evaluation process has become a top priority. The DOD’s Strategic Capabilities Office is one organization taking that imperative to heart and working to meet warfighter needs faster and more effectively than ever.
Public Procurement Central brings together the best content for public procurement professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
FedScoop
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to ban the use of AI-generated voices in robocalls.
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
As vice president of Public Sector Solutions Engineering at Trellix , Bobby New leads field readiness programs, operational excellence and objectives and key results management for the company’s Public Sector Solutions Engineering teams. In a recent Executive Spotlight interview with ExecutiveBiz, New discussed the foundational ideas behind Trellix’s creation and the ways in which they have shaped company values and talent acquisition.
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Andrew MacWilliams, a senior account executive at Precision Talent Solutions since August 2021, has been appointed chief innovation officer at the government-focused recruitment and talent management company. He will oversee the Washington, D.C.-based company’s investments in technology, staff training and recruitment and business growth processes, PTS said Sunday.
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
NASA has selected Seventh Sense Consulting to provide acquisition support services for non-inherently governmental functions. The selection is a single-award blanket purchase agreement with an 8(a) small business with a maximum value of about $77.5 million, the space agency said Wednesday.
Government Contracts
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision Thursday in favor of a UBS whistleblower has solidified whistleblower protections across a wide range of industries, with one attorney saying the ruling has made the Sarbanes-Oxley Act the most pro-employee labor law in the country.
Art of Procurement
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
On January 5th, Alaska Airlines flight 1282 left Portland, Oregon en route to Ontario, California. Just minutes into the flight, The post Savings v. Safety in Aircraft Manufacturing appeared first on Art of Procurement.
FedScoop
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
On basic practices to ensure the accessibility and search optimization of websites, federal pages, have — on average — earned an F, according to a new scoring system. The results indicate that despite the government’s longstanding commitment to improving citizens’ experiences online , there’s still progress to be made. The new government website evaluation tool , which is called “gov metadata,” was created by Luke Fretwell and his son, Elias, as part of the Civic Hacking Agency, a project focuse
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The U.S. Army has selected Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) and Global Military Products, a division of Global Ordnance, to compete for orders under a $133.9 million special ammunition and weapons system production contract.
FedTech Magazine
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
In the beginning, making sure everyone in a meeting was comfortable was easy. All an agency had to do was provide attendees with good chairs and some snacks. Once the pandemic arrived, issues of sound quality, bandwidth and video availability came along, and technology became more important than the best GSA-approved office seating. These days, meetings are even more complicated.
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The U.S. Air Force has awarded 17 companies positions on a potential $499 million contract to design, develop, test and deliver anti-tamper systems to protect critical program information and technologies from adversarial tamper efforts.
How to Crack a Nut
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The National Health Service (NHS) has been running a centralised model for health care procurement in England for a few years now. The current system resulted from a redesign of the NHS supply chain that has been operational since 2019 [for details, see A Sanchez-Graells, ‘ Centralisation of procurement and supply chain management in the English NHS: some governance and compliance challenges ’ (2019) 70(1) NILQ 53-75.
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
SoftBank Group-backed data security software firm Cohesity has agreed to buy the data protection business of Veritas in a cash-and-stock transaction to form a combined entity valued at approximately $7 billion, Reuters reported Thursday.
Kluwer Arbitration
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The German Federal Court of Justice (“BGH”) set off a heated debate when it vacated an arbitral award based on the false application of certain sections of the German Competition Act (GWB) on September 27, 2022 (BGH KZB 75/21), conducting a full review of the arbitral award on the merits. German practitioners were concerned that such a de facto second instance deprives German seated arbitration proceedings of one of their key advantages compared to state court litigation and thereby diminishes t
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The government of Poland’s $1.2 billion acquisition of airspace and surface radar reconnaissance aerostat systems has been approved by the U.S. Department of State.
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
L3Harris Technologies has concluded a three-month demonstration of a multi-band, multi-mission digital beamforming phased array antenna system prototype in support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's satellite data management efforts. During the test, the DPAAS prototype technology handled an average of more than 300 daily satellite contacts and showcased its ability to support multiple simultaneous contacts with near-zero downtime amid the harsh weather conditions in A
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Tim Solms, a technology executive with over three decades of combined military and industry experience, has been named CEO of space tracking and data analytics company Slingshot Aerospace. The U.S.
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Peraton will deliver information technology platform and network services to the U.S. Special Operations Command under a $2.8 billion Special Operations Forces IT Enterprise Contract 3 Enterprise Operations & Maintenance task order. The range of services includes the maintenance of network operations and providing end-user and common device support as well as configuration, change, license and asset management, the company said Wednesday.
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2, is a Department of Defense-wide effort to build a digitally integrated warfighting environment for both U.S. forces and international partners. This massive endeavor relies on connectivity, which U.S. Central Command Chief Technology Officer Schuyler Moore sees as the heart of the successful deployment of new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Oracle has obtained FedRAMP High authorization for over 16 of its new cloud infrastructure services for government customers. The company announced Wednesday that it also added nine features to existing cloud products with FedRAMP High certification, including Cloud Guard Threat Detector, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure DevOps and OCI Identity and Access Management.
Tracker Intelligence
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Winning management consultancy contracts via competitive tender can be lucrative yet challenging. This article provides a comprehensive guide for consultancies on improving their chances of success when bidding for management consulting tenders, whether from government entities, NGOs, or private sector companies. We will outline expert tips and strategies for every stage—from finding promising consultancy tender opportunities to putting together a winning proposal and pitch.
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Ball Aerospace has delivered to Vandenberg Space Force Base the MethaneSAT satellite which, once in orbit, will work to identify global sources of methane -- a major contributor to climate warming -- with the help of its two advanced spectrometers. Ball Aerospace said Wednesday that MethaneSAT's instruments will make it possible to track methane emissions at a regional level as well as at the level of individual sources, complementing current capabilities that focus on either scale or preci
GovCon Wire
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Venice Goodwine is the Chief Information Officer at the Department of the Air Force. She has multiple responsibilities within the department, including overseeing cybersecurity, enforcing information laws, integrating warfighting capabilities, and managing IT and cyber civilian personnel. In 2024, she was honored with a Wash100 Award for her leadership efforts.
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
JE Dunn Construction has received a $62.4 million contract from the General Services Administration for repair and restoration efforts at the Whittaker Courthouse in Kansas City. GSA said Wednesday the company will install low embodied carbon materials to enhance the courthouse’s efficiency and overall performance.
Kluwer Arbitration
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
This Part 2 continues reflections on key arbitration-related developments in Canada during 2023. Whereas Part 1 addressed the courts’ approaches to arbitrator independence and impartiality and the unconscionability of arbitration agreements, this Part 2 shines light on different takes on procedural fairness and “fresh evidence” in post-award proceedings.
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Finnish hyperspectral imaging company Kuva Space has entered the U.S. government market by establishing a new business arm headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia , to provide Earth observation data and services to federal customers. Jerry Welsh , former CEO of the U.S. arm of satellite technology provider ICEYE, has been appointed to the board of directors of Kuva Space U.S. and will oversee the company's expansion efforts in the U.S. public sector, Kuva Space said Wednesday.
Kluwer Arbitration
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
In 2023, Canadian courts were called to rule on a multitude of fascinating issues, including distinguishing arbitration from expert determination ( Clearspring Capital Partners II v. Logistik Unicorp Holdings ), exercising their inherent powers to appoint a notable international arbitration law firm as amicus curiae ( Hypertec Real Estate Inc. v. Equinix Canada Ltd. ), and holding that a third-party beneficiary of a contract must arbitrate contractual warranty claims when said contract provides
ExecutiveBiz
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Jeff Stewart , field chief technology officer and vice president at SolarWinds , said there are five best practices organizations can implement to protect their infrastructure from cyberattacks and one of those practices is developing a playbook of response strategies and tactics. “Your playbook should include detailed instructions on how to handle a cybersecurity incident, from start to finish, and who's responsible for what,” Stewart wrote in a Jan. 31 blog post published on the Carahsoft
Government Contracts
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
A Minnesota federal judge on Thursday chopped a $490 million False Claims Act verdict against an ophthalmology distributor for making kickbacks to doctors in half, finding the compensatory damages to be "notably severe" and "grossly disproportional" to the offense under the Excessive Fines Clause.
Art of Procurement
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
Procurement 6 is a short podcast from Art of Procurement that publishes in the Art of Procurement feed every Friday. The post Procurement 6 – February 9th, 2024 appeared first on Art of Procurement.
Government Contracts
FEBRUARY 8, 2024
The day after a national panel that reviews judicial misconduct affirmed Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman's suspension for refusing to undergo medical tests as part of a probe into her mental fitness, the judge complained Thursday that she had been taken off an email list that goes to all judges.
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