Less Oversight and Undefined Penalties: The NDAA’s Proposed Protest Reforms

Buried in Section 885 of the current draft of the National Defense Authorization Action (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 is a new attempt to figure out how to make unsuccessful bid protesters pay. As of this posting, the NDAA has not passed Congress or been signed by the President. But, like prior attempts, this effort to change the rules of bid protests seems more performative than practical as it is riddled with unanswered (and perhaps unanswerable) questions. Note that the current statutory text does not oblige the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to do anything other than write a proposal for Congress to consider, so it is entirely possible this effort will eventually die on the vine.

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