While protesting a federal contract award has been difficult at best, a new ruling by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) now allows contractors to more easily protest contracts valued under $10 million. Previously, the GAO only reviewed contracts over $10 million.

Due to a sunset clause, or expiring legislation outlining GAO’s contracting review authority, GAO’s authority has expanded based on an earlier law, the 1984 Competition in Contracting Act. Under the older act, GAO now has the jurisdiction over certain aspects of bid protests for civil and defense task and delivery order awards under $10 million.

"As a result of the sunset, the jurisdiction of our office over protests of task or delivery orders has, effectively, reverted to the jurisdiction we had under CICA," GAO said ruling last June.

What this means for IT vendors and others involved in federal contracting is greater opportunities for protesting civilian agency contract awards not only with the GAO, but potentially with the Court of Federal Claims. Yet this will only happen if the court agrees on GAOs interpretation of the sunset clause.

"GAO’s jurisdiction over these protests is no longer exclusive," said Sarah Gleich, an attorney with Crowell & Moring in a blog post. "To the extent that the Court of Federal Claims agrees with GAO’s interpretation of the sunset clause," the court could once again share jurisdiction with GAO, Gleich said.

However, these expanded protest opportunities may be short lived, as new legislation has passed the Senate that would revert GAO’s review authority back to the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. This act only allows the GAO to review contracts over $10 million. Also, the pending military authorization bill in the Senate has addressed the issue.

The legal runaround does not apply to defense contracts however, since Congress extended the 2008 bill on task and delivery orders related to the DoD in a 2011 funding bill.

Yet whatever role the GAO plays in task and delivery order awards for civilian or defense contracts, the agency does not review issues related to contract administration, said attorney Marko Kipa in E-Commerce Times.

"IT firms and other firms may seek recourse for contract administration ‘issues’ under the Contract Disputes Act at either the Board of Contract Appeals or the Court of Federal Claims," Kippa said.

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Chandler Harris is a freelance business and technology writer located in Silicon Valley. He has written for numerous publications including Entrepreneur, InformationWeek, San Jose Magazine, Government Technology, Public CIO, AllBusiness.com, U.S. Banker, Digital Communities Magazine, Converge Magazine, Surfer's Journal, Adventure Sports Magazine, ClearanceJobs.com, and the San Jose Business Journal. Chandler is also engaged in helping companies further their content marketing needs through content strategy, optimization and creation, as well as blogging and social media platforms. When he's not writing, Chandler enjoys his beach haunt of Santa Cruz where he rides roller coasters with his son, surfs and bikes across mountain ranges.