Why not to be the lowest bidder

How does your construction business win work today? If you’re like the hundreds of typical contractors, you’re probably getting on bid lists, bidding work, following up (maybe!) and being awarded projects as the “lowest qualified bidder.” It works, right? Your ability to secure competitive pricing from vendors and subs, and your confidence in operations to […]

SBA resets some small business goals for 2025

Agencies have some new small business contracting goals for fiscal 2025 and they are more in line with traditional targets. The Small Business Administration specifically reset the small disadvantaged business goals, requiring agencies to at least award 5% of all contracts to these firms. The SBA updated these goals on Jan. 24 assigning every agency the same […]

Trump’s Executive Order on IIJA and IRA Contracts: Maximizing Cost Recovery for Government Contractors

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order entitled “Unleashing American Energy” (the Executive Order) aimed at reversing many of the Biden Administration’s clean energy and climate-related actions.  The Executive Order will have significant impacts on many contracts (as well as grants, cooperative agreements, loans, and other awards) that are funded by either […]

Trump’s Executive Order Shuts Down Federal DEI Programs: Key Steps for Federal Contractors to Improve Cost Recovery

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed the executive order, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing (DEI Executive Order), putting an end to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs within the federal government. Given the DEI Executive Order and the potential impact it may have on current federal contracts, PilieroMazza put together […]

Despite Trump’s orders, DBE not dead yet

The president’s move to revoke a ban on discrimination in federal contracting could have a chilling effect, but it will take an act of Congress to dismantle current programs. Programs that carve out participation goals for traditionally underrepresented workers on federal construction contracts may be under fire, but they’re not dead yet. That was the […]

Disaster recovery contractors poised to take on LA wildfire damage

Construction firms such as Jacobs, AECOM and Quanta Services could play key roles in the rebuilding efforts, according to financial services company Baird. The most recent Southern California wildfires, which have killed at least 25 people and displaced tens of thousands, will increase demand for contractors specializing in disaster recovery and electrical grid restoration in […]

Biden-Harris Administration Awards Record-Breaking $183B in Federal Contracts to Small Businesses, Marking Fourth Consecutive Year of Growth

WASHINGTON — Today,   Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small business Administration, and the voice in President Biden’s Cabinet for America’s more than 34 million small businesses, announced that small businesses received more than $183 billion in prime contracts from the federal government – 28.8% of all federal contracting dollars – in fiscal […]

LA fires damage power, sewer and water infrastructure

AccuWeather says total costs could range between $250 billion and $275 billion, including rebuilding and economic loss, making these the most expensive fires in U.S. history. Wildfires have mangled Los Angeles’ infrastructure as they continue to rage in parts of the area, spurred by high winds and supercharged by climate change. Though it’s still too early […]

DoD, SBA to pour over $2.8 billion into small businesses

The Defense Department, in partnership with the Small Business Administration, has issued licensees to the first group of investors through the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technology initiative, which will pour more than $2.8 billion into innovative startups and small businesses developing technologies deemed vital to national security. The first 13 licensed funds approved under […]