GovCon News

11 articles on govcon news for government contractors. Practical guidance on finding, bidding, and winning federal contracts.

• Your SBIR Phase III Work Is Protestable: What Strategi Consulting Means for Small Innovators — A Court of Federal Claims ruling in Strategi Consulting, LLC v. United States gives SBIR Phase II awardees a real path to challenge agencies that quietly move follow-on work to other contractors instead of honoring the Phase III preference. The court held that informal insourcing counts as a procurement, that the FASA task order bar does not shield it, and that injunctive relief is available. Combined with the 20-year data protection period and the 2026 reauthorization, small innovators have more leverage over the transition to Phase III than most of them use.
• NAICS Is Being Rewritten for 2027, and Your Size Standard Rides on It: Comments Close August 12 — OMB published proposed NAICS 2027 updates on July 13, 2026, and the comment window closes August 12. The changes consolidate dozens of manufacturing codes, retitle airport operations to include spaceports, and leave professional services codes untouched. For small contractors, the code you sit in determines your size standard, so a merged code can quietly change whether you still count as small.
• Cost Accounting Standards Just Got Rewritten: What the New $35 Million Threshold Means for Growing Small Businesses — A July 2026 final rule rescinds four Cost Accounting Standards effective August 7, and a separate NDAA provision raises the CAS applicability threshold from 2.5 million dollars to 35 million dollars. Neither change touches the small business CAS exemption directly, but both reshape the runway for companies about to outgrow it.
• GSA's Draft AI Safeguarding Rule for LLM Contracts: Public Comments Close August 3, 2026 — GSA posted a revised AI safeguarding clause for large language model contracts on June 17, 2026, and public comments close August 3. If you sell, resell, integrate, or operate an LLM tool on a GSA vehicle, this clause is headed for your contract whether you have been tracking it or not.
• CMMC Phase II Is Suspended: What the Pentagon Pause Means for Small Defense Contractors — On July 13, 2026, the Department of War suspended the CMMC Phase II requirement that would have forced third-party cybersecurity audits starting this November. It is a pause, not a repeal, and a 60 day review is now underway. Here is what changed, what has not, and what to do before the next contract modification lands.
• New FAR Rule Forces Agency Head Sign-Off on Non-Fixed-Price Contracts Starting July 15, 2026 — On July 1, 2026, the FAR Council quietly set dollar thresholds requiring agency head approval before a contracting officer can use anything other than a fixed-price contract. The first deadline lands July 15, 2026, and a second one reaches back into contracts you already hold. Here is what changed and what to check before Wednesday.
• FAR Overhaul Enters Formal Rulemaking: Your Comment Window Closes July 23, 2026 — The Revolutionary FAR Overhaul just became formal rulemaking, with four proposed rules covering 20 parts of the FAR open for public comment through July 23, 2026. A second deadline the next day affects contractors with active federal contracts. Here is what is in the rules and what to do before both dates pass.
• The FY25 Federal Contracting Scorecard Is Out: What the Numbers Mean for Small Businesses Right Now — The SBA released the FY25 federal procurement scorecard last week, and the top-line number is striking: small businesses captured nearly 28 percent of all prime federal contract dollars, the highest share in over a decade. But the category-by-category breakdown tells a more complicated story that every small contractor needs to understand before writing another proposal.
• SBA Proposes Major Overhaul to 8(a) Social Disadvantage Standard: What Small Business Contractors Must Do Before July 13 — On June 11, 2026, the Small Business Administration issued a proposed rule that rewrites the social disadvantage eligibility standard for the 8(a) Business Development Program. The change is the most significant shift to the program in decades, and comments are due July 13. If you have a pending application or plan to apply, the clock is running.
• The FAR Is Being Rewritten: What the 2026 Overhaul Means for Small Business Contractors Right Now — The Federal Acquisition Regulation, the rulebook governing every federal purchase, is undergoing its most sweeping rewrite in over 40 years. Layered on top: a new executive order making fixed-price contracts the government-wide default. Both are in effect right now. Here is what changed and what you need to do.
• Two New SBA Loan Programs and a GSA RFI That Could Shape Federal Payments for Years to Come — SBA rolled out two new loan programs at the end of March that most contractors still have not heard about, and GSA opened the door for industry to shape one of the biggest payment programs in federal contracting. Here is the breakdown.

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