Government Contractor Compliance & Regulatory Update

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On December 19, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the federal contractor and subcontractor vaccine mandate requirements issued in response to Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors (the “federal contractor mandate”).

Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi (the “Plaintiff States”),  sought to

As federal contractors are aware, on December 7, 2021, a federal judge issued a nationwide preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the federal contractor and subcontractor vaccine mandate requirements issued by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (the “Task Force”) in response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors.

Following up on two recent federal court decisions (discussed here and here) enjoining the enforcement of the contractor vaccine mandate, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) has issued guidance, posted on the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force’s (“Task Force”) website, regarding the federal government’s response to those decisions.

The guidance provides that

UPDATE (2/4/22): On February 2, the Eleventh Circuit scheduled oral argument for April 8.

UPDATE (1/27/22): On January 21, 2022, Judge Baker issued an order in response to the federal government’s request for clarification of his order enjoining the federal contractor vaccine mandate nationwide.  Judge Baker’s latest order addressed two inquiries.  First, he declined to

Federal government contractors and subcontractors have been dealing with a steady stream of new FAQs and details regarding the COVID-19 safety requirements for federal contractors and subcontractors first announced by President Biden’s Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, and then issued by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (the

Today, the Biden Administration issued a Fact Sheet related to the new OSHA emergency temporary standard (“ETS”) requiring vaccination or masking for employers with more than 100 employees and the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requirement that health care workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid are fully vaccinated (the “CMS rule”). 

Federal government contractors and subcontractors have been scrambling for weeks to try to digest and implement the COVID-19 safety measures issued by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (the “Task Force”) in the wake of the Biden Administration’s Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors.  Our prior analysis of the

The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (the “Task Force”) has released additional frequently asked questions and answers (“FAQs”) regarding its Guidance for Federal Contractors and Subcontractors on implementing COVID-19 safety measures in accordance with Executive Order 14042. Our prior posts on the Guidance and previously-issued FAQs can be found here and here.

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As previously reported, the Biden Administration issued Executive Order 14042 (“the Order”) last month.  The Order requires, in part, that the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council (“the FAR Council”) amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) to include a clause specifying that contractors and subcontractors shall “comply with all guidance for contractor or subcontractor workplace locations

The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force has released a set of frequently asked questions and answers (“FAQs”) regarding the Guidance for Federal Contractors and Subcontractors (the “Guidance”) it issued last week.  Our comprehensive summary of the Guidance is available here.

The new FAQs largely repackage the information provided in the Guidance.  However, they do