National Defense Authorization Act of 2017 Restored and Upped Jurisdiction of the GAO for Bid Protests in Relation to Civilian Task Orders

By: Christine V. Williams on 01/01/2017

In November, I wrote about the expiration of the GAO’s jurisdiction to hear bid protest in relation to civilian task orders.  That short article may be found here: https://outlooklaw.com/legal-list/gao-lacks-jurisdiction-hear-protests-valued-10-million-civilian-agency-idiq-orders-jurisdiction-expired-ryan-consulting-group-inc-b-414014/

On December 23, 2016, President Obama quietly signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), authorizing $611 billion.  Notably, Section 835 of the 2017 NDAA gives permanent jurisdiction to the GAO over protests of civilian agency task orders above the $10 million threshold by removing the sunset provisoin and moving the threshold to $25 million. Here is the link to NDAA: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2943/text