{"id":137,"date":"2015-10-02T16:34:27","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T20:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/?p=137"},"modified":"2015-10-02T16:34:27","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T20:34:27","slug":"new-government-brief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/2015\/10\/02\/new-government-brief\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Abandons Prior Interpretation of 2006 Veterans Act in New Brief to the Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a brief<\/a>\u00a0filed with the Supreme Court on September 29, 2015 in the case Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States<\/em>, 14-916, the government abandoned the restrictive interpretation of the 2006 Veterans Act that it pressed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (background on the case may be found here<\/a>). The 2006 Veterans Act requires that the VA prioritize competitive bidding by veteran-owned small businesses, but the VA has for years declined to follow that mandate to the full extent Congress required. In briefing before various courts, including the Supreme Court, the government had for several years (and as recently as May 1, 2015<\/a>) contended that the VA was allowed to limit competitive bidding by veteran-owned small businesses for VA contracts, but the government has now \u2013 six weeks before oral argument before the Supreme Court \u2013 abandoned that position. Instead, the government now contends that VA \u201corders\u201d that may be filled through the Federal Supply Schedule should be excluded from mandatory competitive bidding, while VA \u201ccontracts\u201d should not.<\/p>\n

This surprising turn of events shows\u00a0that the government\u2019s position remains in flux after years of attempting to justify the VA\u2019s restrictive interpretation of the 2006 Veterans Act. The Court will likely examine closely the government\u2019s new position and its reasons for abandoning its prior one. At minimum, the government\u2019s abandonment of its prior position casts doubt on the VA\u2019s current practice of refusing to submit contracts for competitive bidding by veteran-owned small businesses when such bidding would lead the VA to exceed its goals for doing business with veterans. If the VA follows the interpretation adopted by government\u2019s brief, veteran-owned small businesses should have greater opportunities to offer competitive bids for VA contracts. The government\u2019s new argument \u2013 that the competitive bidding requirements of the 2006 Veterans Act should not apply to \u201corders\u201d \u2013 will be addressed by the Supreme Court when it hears oral argument on November 9, 2015.<\/p>\n

Duane Morris LLP represents as amicus curiae a coalition of veteran-owned small businesses and organizations that urge the Supreme Court to reverse the narrow interpretation of the 2006 Veterans Act and restore the broader contracting opportunities for veteran-owned small businesses that the 2006 Veterans Act intended. A copy of the government\u2019s brief is here<\/a>. A copy of Duane Morris\u2019s amicus brief may be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Luke P. McLoughlin is an associate in the Trial Group in the Philadelphia office of Duane Morris LLP and a member of the firm\u2019s Appellate Practice Group. \u00a0Kristina Caggiano Kelly is an associate in the Intellectual Property Group in the Washington, D.C. office of Duane Morris LLP and a member of the firm\u2019s Appellate Practice Group.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a brief\u00a0filed with the Supreme Court on September 29, 2015 in the case Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States, 14-916, the government abandoned the restrictive interpretation of the 2006 Veterans Act that it pressed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (background on the case may be found here). The 2006 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Government Abandons Prior Interpretation of 2006 Veterans Act in New Brief to the Supreme Court”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29,88,80,81,92,56,91,75,89,90],"ppma_author":[241],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-amicus","tag-kingdomware","tag-kristina-caggiano","tag-kristina-caggiano-kelly","tag-luke-p-mcloughlin","tag-robert-byer","tag-sdvosb","tag-supreme-court","tag-veteran","tag-vosb"],"authors":[{"term_id":241,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"lpmcloughlin","display_name":"Luke P. McLoughlin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2014\/08\/McLoughlinluke-125x150.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"McLoughlin","first_name":"Luke P.","job_title":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/lukepmcloughlin.html","description":"Read Luke's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/appellatelaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}