On July 11, the Department of Homeland Security proposed regulations offering guidance on applying for Safety Act coverage. The agency will begin processing applications for protection Sept. 1.
Homeland security contracting has emerged over the past 18 months as an area of intense interest in the contracting community. Many large systems integrators have shuffled priorities and resources to go after this growing market, and hosts of smaller companies, many of them new to the government market, have set their sights on entry into this field.
Every year, federal agencies spend billions of dollars on commercially available IT products and services through the Federal Supply Schedule program. Now state and local governments have the same opportunity under a law that took effect May 7.
Companies entering the federal market for the first time are often concerned about potential liability for consequential or punitive damages in connection with breach of a federal contract. These companies have heard horror stories about the occasional, huge award of damages against a contractor, typically in a state court, and they want to know if there is similar risk on federal contracts.
<FONT SIZE=2>In February, the White House issued the National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets, which describes the work needed in each industry sector to secure the nation's physical resources against the threat of terrorism.</FONT>
<FONT SIZE=2>When the Bush administration in June resolved to create a Department of Homeland Security, it proposed giving the department special authority to use "flexible" procurement practices. The administration proposed that the agency generally would follow existing, governmentwide procurement laws, but would have broad authority to deviate from them if they would impair the agency's mission or operations.</FONT>
In the post-Sept. 11 world, corporations must confront numerous liability issuesrelated to terrorism. One is the liability of the corporation, its directors and officersfor business decisions related to a company's preparedness for terrorist attacks.
The Homeland Security Act (H.R. 5005) passed by the House in July is a massive piece of legislation that not only will restructure the government, it will reshape dealings between government and the private sector on a variety of security-related issues.
Now and then, long-standing legal principles are overtaken ? for good reason ? by competing principles that better match our evolving standards of justice. In contract law, for example, no one today would seriously dispute the idea that a duty of good faith and fair dealing is implicit in all contracts. Yet the concept was foreign to many contracting parties just 40 years ago.
As budgets for homeland security continue to grow, companies across the country are searching for effective ways to present their products and ideas to federal and state agencies.
On several occasions after Sept. 11, the government has used its special power under the Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) to meet national security demands.
As Operation Enduring Freedom enters its second month and the reality of a lengthy military campaign looms ahead, the Defense Department continues its shift to a full, wartime posture.
Corporate consolidation has been a defining feature of the federal market over the past 10 years. Over the same period, past performance has become a prominent evaluation factor in all negotiated procurements.
