Government Procurement Supply Chain Regulation

The multitude of federal and state government sourcing requirements for contractors, subcontractors, and grantees — which are driven by public policy considerations that are often inconsistent with normal commercial practice — impose complicated supply chain challenges, necessitating the adoption of special government-contracting-specific sourcing policies and procedures. Moreover, because many of these sourcing requirements include associated certifications of compliance from contractors, failure to comply can often raise false claims issues in addition to the more mundane breach of contract issues that would otherwise arise.

Our Government Supply Chain Regulation team is dedicated to advising you on how to navigate the often-arcane domestic content requirements in state and federal government contracting, including compliance with the Buy American Act, Trade Agreements Act, the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement, the Federal Transit Administration’s Buy America regulations, the Recovery Act Buy American requirements, the Berry Amendment and other sourcing requirements unique to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) (such as specialty metals source restrictions), and state Buy American or domestic content requirements.

We will work closely with you to assist you in understanding applicable domestic manufacturing and content obligations, and planning or adjusting your sourcing and production processes to comply with those obligations. Our team has developed and delivered detailed training on domestic content requirements to client leadership and supply chain managers, and we regularly draft or revise sourcing policies or purchase order terms and conditions to ensure compliance with domestic content requirements on government contracts.

Our work includes advising clients on preparing for and implementing procedures to comply with the SEC’s new conflict minerals disclosure obligations and the DOD’s pending counterfeit parts regulations that will impact prime contractors and subcontractors and necessitate compliance reviews of their quality assurance programs and supplier bases.

Our Government Supply Chain Regulation team attorneys also have extensive experience in defending the compliance of clients’ products with applicable domestic content/manufacturing requirements, including representing clients in responding to agency Office of Inspector General investigations and other government audits of domestic content/manufacturing compliance. When a client’s product does not meet the applicable domestic content requirements, we have advised clients on appropriate corrective action, often drafting — and helping the client marshal the information necessary to support — requests for a waiver of the requirements.

We also have assisted clients in obtaining rulings from U.S. Customs and Border Protections confirming the compliance of products with the Trade Agreements Act, allowing those products to be offered for sale to federal and state/local customers under a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule contract.

We also are experienced in procurement challenges of non-compliance with domestic content requirements, which require alerting procurement officials of domestic content issues at an early stage in the procurement.