A new interim rule issued by the Pentagon and civilian agencies this week will prohibit Federal government agencies from buying and using certain-foreign made drone aircraft – including those made in China – with a larger policy aim of strengthening national security and reducing reliance on technology produced by adversarial nations.   […]

The White House’s announcement today of a proposed rulemaking requiring the Federal government to boost its purchases of American-made goods does not appear to impact existing regulations for the purchase of commercial IT products, at least thus far. […]

Starting August 13, a new Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council rule will ban Federal agencies from buying products or utilizing services from China-based tech companies such as Huawei and ZTE. A July 23 memo from the Department of Defense (DoD) outlines contracting responsibilities as agencies adjust to the transition. […]

ACT-IAC released a best practices guide July 10 for industry and government on how to approach other transaction authorities (OTAs), a novel approach to Federal contracting governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation. […]

A rule change prohibiting Federal use of telecommunications services and equipment from companies that pose national security risks – such as China-based Huawei and ZTE – will cost $11 billion to implement and $2 billion each subsequent year, according to a July 14 Federal Register announcement from the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and NASA. […]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Energy, Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Army, and U.S. Navy inappropriately awarded 1,849 contracts to businesses that had tax debts in 2015 and 2016. […]