Executive Orders – March 20, 2025
The United States possesses vast mineral resources that can create jobs, fuel prosperity, and significantly reduce our reliance on foreign nations. Transportation, infrastructure, defense capabilities, and the next generation of technology rely upon a secure, predictable, and affordable supply of minerals.
Government agency responses due between March 30 and May 4, 2025.
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The executive order signed this week is part of a wider push to put the onus on states and localities to prepare for disasters, rather than the federal government.
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As part of efforts to right-size the schedules program, GSA is reviewing vendors who don’t meet the sales quota or are having performance and compliance issues. As part of efforts to right-size the schedules program, GSA is reviewing vendors who don’t meet the sales quota or are having performance and compliance issues.
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Contractors navigating federal procurement must understand how IP is created, owned, and licensed under government agreements. The failure to properly manage IP rights can lead to the unintended loss of ownership, competitive disadvantages, or disputes with the government over licensing terms. These six tips will help contractors protect their innovations while remaining compliant with government regulations.
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Before the USPTO was subject to a hiring freeze, it assumed it would onboard 400 new examiners between fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026, and still predicted an increase in the backlog of unexamined patent applications. With a hiring freeze in place, the current backlog at nearly 838,000 unexamined patent applications, and the wait for initial examination already over 20 months, applicants can expect the time required to obtain a patent to increase.
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In the recent MicroTechnologies LLC and SMS Data Products Group, Inc. decisions, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained protests challenging the Agency’s failure to perform the required price risk analysis under DFARS 252.204-7024. These cases mark the first time the GAO has addressed the application of the relatively new DFARS provision.
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Sealing GSA’s dominance on the tech news front today was its announcement of action to tighten the Multiple Awards Schedule (MAS) program to prioritize “value and fiscal responsibility” in Federal contracting. MAS is a government-wide procurement program that streamlines purchasing from pre-approved vendors and exceeded $51.5 billion in sales during fiscal year (FY) 2024. Changes to the program announced Monday by Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum include: allowing contracts to expire that fail to meet sales thresholds; addressing contractor non-compliance and performance concerns; reducing redundancies with other Federal procurement channels; simplifying processes, eliminating inefficiencies, and ensuring proper alignment of program management and oversight; and eliminating items with insufficient market demand or high administrative costs. “With these actions, we can put our agency resources where they get the most impactful return on investment – and that means the goods and services that are most in demand by federal customers,” Gruenbaum said.
SBA will restructure to eliminate wasteful spending, restore mission of empowering small businesses
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, pursuant to EO 14210, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced its plans for an agency-wide reorganization. To return to its founding mission of empowering small businesses, and to restore accountability to taxpayers, the agency will reduce its workforce by 43% – ending the expansive social policy agenda of the prior Administration, eliminating non-essential roles, and returning to pre-pandemic staffing levels.
The strategic reorganization will begin a turnaround for the agency by restoring the efficiency of the first Trump Administration, as well as its focus on promoting small businesses. Core services to the public, including the agency’s loan guarantee and disaster assistance programs, as well as its field and veteran operations, will not be impacted.
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On January 15, the Department of Defense, GSA, and NASA published proposed rules that would implement the Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act. The Act was enacted on December 27, 2022. It directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council to:
The proposed changes implement the Act by moving OCI regulations to a new subpart, FAR part 3, and substantially revising and clarifying current OCI regulations.
The focus of the proposed rule is to update and strengthen policies to prevent OCIs in federal contracting.
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Buyers must default to rapid-acquisition processes long used by DIU, SecDef memo orders.
The Pentagon must default to rapid acquisition processes when buying software, from business systems to weapons components, the defense secretary said in a Thursday memo. The move is a “big deal,” one expert told Defense One, because it will push the Defense Department to stop spending considerable money and time trying to build its own software and instead go to the marketplace for products that might already exist.
“While the commercial industry has rapidly adjusted to a software-defined product reality, DoD has struggled to reframe our acquisition process from a hardware-centric to a software-centric approach,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in the March 6 memo. “Software is at the core of every weapon and supporting system we field to remain the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”
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