Latest / The FAR is Lava / EP 1: RFO Part 19, AbilityOne, AI Fraud & the Wilson 5 Protest

Transcript

EP 1: RFO Part 19, AbilityOne, AI Fraud & the Wilson 5 Protest · The FAR is Lava

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to The Far Is Lava, your shortcut to federal procurement news that we've read so you don't have to.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: In today's episode, we're covering a wide range of stories, including why an SPA proposal could make more than 114,000 additional companies eligible as a small business, why DSA is singling out the Ability One program, and we'll talk about a contractor accused of using AI to falsify financial documents.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're too far or the RFO, you're in the right place.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: I've Ben here with Will.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Hello, let's get started.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: All right, episode one.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the podcast.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: This is the first official podcast that we put on the YouTube channel.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: And if you're watching this, you're on YouTube.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: We will be doing this weekly, is the goal.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: And then after a few weeks, we will then release this to all your favorite podcast locations Spotify, Apple.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: But we'll do about four episodes maybe and then put it there.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: So stay here on YouTube.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: And if you like the content, if you like this uh format, like it, comment, subscribe.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: That will motivate us to do it.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Let us know.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: If no one's watching or listening, it's you know, it's hard to get up in the morning and put our pants on and our moms do watch it and hook it.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: So at least we'll get that.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: So if you like it, you want us to make more of these episodes, please uh leave a comment or at least like and subscribe, and we'll put those on here on YouTube and then eventually on podcast places.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, welcome.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: We're filming from beautiful Ponte Vejo Beach, Florida.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: And so we got our Hawaiian shirts on.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh represent some heat here in Florida as well as the lava theme of our episodes.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so we hope you enjoy it.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: The format, we're gonna have a few, we're gonna talk about a few things.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: But if you are interested in procurement news, we will always be having news.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about some protests.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: We will get into the RFO every single time.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: And then we have questions from listeners and viewers of our other videos.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: And so people will put questions in the comments, and we're gonna read a couple of those, answer those.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So if you would like some of your questions answered, comment on this video or really any of our YouTube videos.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: We'll find those questions and you may be featured on one of the next episodes.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exciting.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh, before we get started, let's do a little contract history.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: Will yeah, we've wanted to do this for a while.
1:58
SPEAKER_02: This day, so we we have compiled a calendar 365 66 for leap year.
2:05
SPEAKER_02: Day calendar.
2:05
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: Or every day is something that happens significant in uh contract procurement history that the team did that.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: I can't take credit for that.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: But we got a couple.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: So uh you may be watching this around September 8th, September 9th.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: And if it's September 9th, you're watching this.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: On this day in September 9th, 2021, uh Biden released Executive Order 14042 ensuring adequate COVID procedures and safety protocols for all federal contractors.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Six feet space between each contract line.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
2:39
SPEAKER_02: Every contractors had to wear masks on the job and all that.
2:42
SPEAKER_02: And they had to put that in their contracts.
2:44
SPEAKER_02: The the COs, I think, were required to do this mass modification effort to make sure contractors were complying with these with these rules.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: So the pesticide, they're fine.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: They're already wearing masks.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: They're good.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: They're fine.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: But everyone else was really in trouble.
2:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: A lot of work.
2:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
2:58
SPEAKER_02: So I mean, it's it's a it's a good way to start off our very first podcast by reminding people of COVID.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:04
SPEAKER_02: Good time.
3:05
SPEAKER_02: So celebrate this day, maybe, by finding an old mask you used to wear.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: You know, sit six feet from your spouse and loved ones.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Wash your groceries as you bring them into the house.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Hand sanitizer.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Was that part?
3:17
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if that was part of the uh hoard all the toilet paper.
3:22
SPEAKER_02: So that happened.
3:23
SPEAKER_02: Also, the Defense Production Act of 1950 happened on this day on September 8th.
3:29
SPEAKER_02: The Defense Production Act was passed by Truman during the Korean War, but really it helped the government in the direct response to the outbreak of the war, uh, and it helped uh prioritize certain supplies.
3:42
SPEAKER_02: So it helped the government have a little more control over the supply chain and uh prioritize those um supplies from getting into the hands of the government so that we can, you know, for welfare.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: And we're still using it today, right?
3:55
SPEAKER_02: We used it in COVID, actually.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: So the Defense Production Act popped its head up during COVID where we tried to get ventilators, and it's happening now, I think, with supply chains, with drones and uh Golden Dome, I think, is and stuff like that.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: All right, perfect.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's your history.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: So you're welcome.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh all right, we'll get into the news.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh the news will always be will always be brought to you by the Daily Dose.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: That is our daily newsletter, Monday through Friday, daily newsletter giving you all the procurement news you need.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: So stop searching and clicking.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, we'll just give you everything you need to your inbox.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: We'll put a link in the description, subscribe there, and then every day, Monday through Friday, you'll get all the procurement news.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we source the news for the show.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: And so you can be ahead of the game and you'll actually see what we'll be talking about.
4:39
SPEAKER_02: We have an acquisition expert who meticulously curates that.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: So she does use AI, but you we also have an expert who's kind of making sure the best stories are at the top.
4:48
SPEAKER_02: It's a great resource.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: All right.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: So, news story number one the SBA proposes major changes to small business size standards.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: They're looking to overhaul it and going from six digit Nix code down to four or five, which will take it from around almost a thousand different size standards down to around 300 different size standards.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: So it's you know, really reducing what it takes to qualify, but it's gonna greatly increase the number of small businesses, which could be good or bad depending on what side of the spectrum you're on.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, a couple of quick stats here that I found pretty interesting.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: And uh these are all over the news as we're refining this.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be 114,000 new small businesses that are gonna qualify.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: About 37,000 of those already have federal contracts.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh those contractors held roughly 105,000 contracts for about 71 billion dollars.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: So 37,000 existing large businesses are now magically gonna be small businesses.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: And they have contracts worth 71 billion.
5:46
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: 71 billion.
5:48
unknown: Yeah.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: So it's this is these are big changes and they're happening in a couple of ways, but a lot of it's going from instead of the number of people you have, it's gonna go to up to how much money you're making.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: And so and these are increases of like, you know, not just 20% increase or 30% increase uh in people or money, it's hundreds and hundreds percent increase.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: And so what now is called a small business is not always so small.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: I mean, so a lot of them though, they're they're and this is what I thought was was interesting.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: They're taking the the so first it's it's they're changing the Nakes code, North American industry classification, is that which is Nakes, which is not slang for naked.
6:25
SPEAKER_02: No.
6:25
SPEAKER_02: Do you ever do that?
6:26
SPEAKER_02: You do you use that for naked?
6:28
SPEAKER_02: Don't come in.
6:28
SPEAKER_02: I'm Nakes.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: No, okay.
6:30
SPEAKER_02: All right, well, I'll try.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's just me.
6:32
SPEAKER_02: Um so uh yeah, so that they're they're changing the Nakes codes down to to be broader, uh, because that was also like a big challenge for contracting officers to select the right Nakes codes.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's only 995 of them or so.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: And now I mean come on, what are they complaining about?
6:48
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Now there's how many?
6:50
SPEAKER_00: 338 still.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot.
6:53
SPEAKER_02: It's a big reduction, though, right?
6:54
SPEAKER_02: It is.
6:54
SPEAKER_02: So you're able to it it's it's a little bit more generic, which is easier for the contracting officer.
6:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but the interesting thing to me about this is they they took a lot of what what qualifies as a small business, they changed it from how much money you're making.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: So if you don't exceed a certain amount of revenue earned to the small business uh size, which um which to me shows a shift, maybe.
7:18
SPEAKER_02: This is just my take on this.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: But it's it's kind of celebrating the the small but mighty companies.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: So even if you make just a lot of money, if if if you are a company with only X amount of employees, then you're a small business.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: And you don't necessarily have to be um uh, you know, a large just because you made a certain threshold.
7:36
SPEAKER_02: And then they even say, like uh on those businesses where some year, some years they make a lot, they make more money and then they become a large and they become a small because they're making less.
7:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh it really now is controlled by employee size.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: That makes sense to me.
7:50
SPEAKER_02: You know what's really interesting though is um is the are there implications here for companies that uh do more with less people and AI?
7:58
SPEAKER_02: Like if if you're working lean by using AI, you can qualify as a small business even if you're making maybe a lot of money.
8:07
SPEAKER_02: And those Nakes where all they care about is employee size.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it does help.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I mean, hopefully you're not laying off people just to stay under a certain employee threshold because now you're worried more about money, right?
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh which is good.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: I do think it's interesting though, I was uh when you think of small business, and we'll go outside of the Nakes world and outside of the SBA, but when you talk about small business, people are thinking like, oh, the mom and pop down the shop or down the street, or the guy with a 3D printer now making a new widget that might have some kind of relevant you know information for the DOD.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: They're not thinking of you know 1,500 employees at a company as a small business.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: And so I looked up on Salesforce, how does Salesforce, and again, that's a software that you know that is B2B, how do they define uh small business?
8:49
SPEAKER_00: And again, it's it's a moving target.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: There's not one definition, obviously, but they would say 500 employees or less or five million a year or less is a small business.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: SBA is way beyond that.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're talking either 1,500 employees or 45 million or 45 million dollars in revenue.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: So small business and in the SBA is they're all pretty large.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: And uh we'll put the article below.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to make sure we're referencing, but um a gentleman's article he read said this is actually only an increase.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean these are huge changes, but it's only about a 1.6, 1.8% increase of uh um what there is existing.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: And so it's actually not a a huge increase.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: It's just his point was everything's small.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Like we're calling everything small at this point.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh you can say is a cheap way for us to meet our uh our size standard quotas or whatever, right?
9:34
SPEAKER_02: Was like if if we're having trouble meeting uh meeting the quotas for for a small business, why don't we just uh change the definition of what a small business means?
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: It does seem harder for a small business to compete.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Because again, if you are a small business, you're a lean team, five, six, seven people, you know, trying to work on some kind of prototype, but now you're competing against some firm of 1,500 people.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: It does the competition does seem difficult.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: The other impact it has is those companies that are on that verge of going from small to large, now they're too large.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: It's hard for them to compete anymore because now they're a large business and they would like to stay small.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we did the music video forever small on that point.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, I loved it when we were a small business.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: Competition was easier and we we could be more agile.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: Now they're a large company.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: So it does put people back into that small business category.
10:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: So it does help some of those as well.
10:18
SPEAKER_02: I was thinking about the it said in the in the uh one of the articles that there's 200, about 200 businesses who are actually going to turn large from this.
10:29
SPEAKER_02: And I I'm I'm getting it didn't go into details, but I'm guessing it it may have to do with that shift from how much money you're making to how what your employee size.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: So the if there are companies out there who are large employee-wise, but they met that threshold revenue definition, then they may turn into large businesses as well.
10:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: All right.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Does this impact, you know, in terms of the contracting office, the CEO, is there a lot of impact here?
10:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're just gonna look for companies that qualify.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so and they have they have fewer NACS code to worry about.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: So that that's easier.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, is there anything that really impacts a contracting office?
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh probably not.
11:06
SPEAKER_02: I mean, so so the general uh tone of the revolutionary far overhaul, which do we say this podcast is pretty much a lot of it's about the revolutionary far overhaul and all the confusion around that.
11:17
SPEAKER_02: RFO.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: The RFO, as I like to call it.
11:19
SPEAKER_02: RFO.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: The the tone of that r really is um there's not a lot of emphasis on prioritizing small business.
11:28
SPEAKER_02: If you if there uh the RFO is encouraging and even uh requiring when it makes sense, contracting officers to use these large government-wide uh vehicles, like federal supply schedules on part eight, large multiple award contracts in part 16, part eight, um in uh the GSAR, so uh I'll do a reference here.
11:50
SPEAKER_02: 538.7102 B makes it clear that part 19, which is this the small business part, does not apply.
11:59
SPEAKER_02: So you don't have to set aside orders for small business if you're a war if you're uh ordering off of a federal supply schedule.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: Part 19.101b8 says uh that you may set aside orders, like if you're using part 16, but you don't have to.
12:16
SPEAKER_02: Actually, I I looked at the word orders.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: I did a control F search of all of part 19, and every time it says orders, there's the word may is before it.
12:24
SPEAKER_02: It says it like 52 times or something, and it makes it very clear.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh setting aside uh against multiple award contracts is completely discretionary.
12:33
SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, already there's a oh, and also in part one of the FAR.
12:36
SPEAKER_02: So you have the guiding principles of of the RFO now, and it's things like go commercial, uh, award to superior performers, not one mention about awarding to small business.
12:46
SPEAKER_02: So that shift is intentionally, uh in my opinion, what they're doing is they're focusing on superior performance and merit, and they're shifting away a little bit from checking the box and just awarding to a contractor based on status.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: That's why the eight A rules have changed.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh in part 19 uh point one oh eight uh dash eleven says that you it has easier ways for you to not have to follow on with an eight-a contractor.
13:13
SPEAKER_02: Dash seven says you have to you can't just directly award to an A because their status.
13:17
SPEAKER_02: It's trying to move the workforce away from just checking the box and and people getting contracts just because of their status and more about what they have to offer.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: So and maybe I don't know, maybe the SBA, some of the size standards may reflect that.
13:33
SPEAKER_02: It's you know, it does if you're making a lot of money and you're getting bringing in a lot of revenue, that could be uh they they could be rewarding companies by keeping them small as long as their numbers are small.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: That means that these are small but mighty companies in our in our market, maybe.
13:46
SPEAKER_02: They stay small, and it doesn't matter how much they make because they're they're able to operate at a uh small level.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Or they just break branch off to a third company and call that small.
13:56
SPEAKER_02: Or they fire half their staff, like you said, for AI.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: That's what they worry about.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, and our RFO segment later was gonna be on part 19.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: So you may have just spoiled everything potentially.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: But we'll see.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: There's other things we can get into.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Um next news story.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: The GSA is asking the Ability One Commission, along with its partners such as National Industries for the Blind and Source America to conduct a broad review of its products sold through the program because they're saying the country of origin says USA, but may in fact not be made in the USA.
14:25
SPEAKER_02: So Ability One, are are they communists now?
14:28
SPEAKER_02: Is that what's happening?
14:29
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what the article said at the very end.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: But they aren't actually doing they're just having incorrect uh listings for if it's made in the USA or not.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: And obviously that goes against the Buy America Act, big issue.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Um on the reverse side, and there's a couple of things that that um they're in trouble for potentially.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: They are pushing back and kind of saying, like, look, we're only 0.6 percent of the total spend, so why are you picking on us?
14:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: And we know that there's some issues and we're working on it, but I think it's been taking them too long.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Billy One feels like they're being singled out by GSA.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Is that the pushback there would be they don't actually they're not denying it.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: So when they they're saying, look, it's it's a tiny amount of the spend, everyone else has the same problem.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, people that through other, they're buying through other places.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: This is we're not the only ones.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: And so the the challenge with the pushback is okay, well, there is a problem.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: And so they have until I think November, they want they're supposed to have a big report and how they're gonna fix it and what they're gonna do by November 12th, but they do face feel singled out.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, the other challenge is they're worried about, um, they're in trouble for price uh markups of about 55%.
15:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Um and then the other thing that got called out for, and this is where it does feel a little bit like they're getting picked on, because it's just like, well, this, well, let's tack on a couple other things that you're you're raising the price too high, and then they're complaining about uh they're in trouble for their CEOs or high-level employees having you know$500 to a million thousand a million dollars salaries, where the average employee has you know$33,000 is the average employee's salary.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: So a big discrepancy of the CEO versus average employee of these nonprofits.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: And so people are becoming very profitable at the top.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh so they're listening, they kind of pile on a few things, and you know the question is, is it really an issue?
16:05
SPEAKER_00: They say potentially there's you know some cybersecurity risks here because they're supposed to be made in America and it's not supply chain supply chain things.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean that's possibly true.
16:15
SPEAKER_02: But these are surveillance uh equipment and uh and the skillcraft pins.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: Yes, exactly.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: Like a microphone and a skillcraft pin.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: And also they, you know, these these ability one and they have all these products, they say like we have we have tons of supply, we have to sell it and we have to get rid of it.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: And so they don't have some of the flexibility that some other companies would.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: So they're like, look, just give us some time.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: And so I see both arguments, but you know, if you say it's made in America and it's not, I mean, that's not very American.
16:40
SPEAKER_02: It is not very American at all.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: I mean, so the context of Ability One is So Ability One is a mandatory source under part eight.
16:46
SPEAKER_02: Ability one is a program uh that provides, I think 41,000 was a number I saw in one of the articles.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Americans with disabilities, blind.
16:57
SPEAKER_02: I think there's mental and physical disabilities.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: They give them jobs to provide services and supplies.
17:03
SPEAKER_02: It's a great program.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: I think, uh, and we talk about ability one a lot on our channel.
17:08
SPEAKER_02: Um friend of the show.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: Uh so but I think the challenge of it, you know, this now, this is the RFO application, maybe, but uh, of course, so much emphasis of the RFO is on merit and competition.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: The competition we we want to uh uh rely on a capitalist market as much as possible by just relying on competition.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: So when we have really good programs like Ability One, we are now in a situation where the competition is not there.
17:36
SPEAKER_02: So so those uh items on the product list, that's a list that if it's on the list and you need that product, you have to buy it from ability one.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: You can't go anywhere else.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: So so contracting officers must buy these things.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, okay, hold on.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: What if it's not made in America and it says it's made in America, then what what yeah, you're the CEO.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: What do you do then?
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Is it the CEO's job to verify then verify?
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Or can they just they should blindly accept that it's made in America, right?
18:02
SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna dig in further.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't have to dig in.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: What if you find it I've had emails before by companies that have a word to and the company will email me and say, you know, this company's not an American company, right?
18:13
SPEAKER_02: Because they even though they say they are, and then they do this whole theory about how they're not.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, there are questions.
18:18
SPEAKER_02: I had to dig, I had to talk to my supervisors when I first started about do I have responsibility to dig into this?
18:23
SPEAKER_02: Should I?
18:24
SPEAKER_02: And I did a little bit, just because I thought, well, but yeah, we have buy America.
18:28
SPEAKER_02: That's in part 40, 25 of the far.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: It's it's still real.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: But I I do think that when ability one says why us, I know they mentioned a couple others.
18:38
SPEAKER_02: There, there is, I think, a necessary, as much as I love ability one in the program there, there's a necessary level of scrutiny.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Because you have to go first, right?
18:46
SPEAKER_00: You have to go to that.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they're beyond competition, they're mandatory.
18:49
SPEAKER_02: So you're always gonna have problems with and a little bit of scrutiny on price prices going up just because they're they're a mandatory source.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: And then now we have this uh additional uh issue with disclosure and supply chain.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: And yeah.
19:02
SPEAKER_02: Oh, they're also the ones for for viewers who aren't uh familiar, uh who are responsible for the skillcraft pen.
19:07
SPEAKER_02: I still use them.
19:08
SPEAKER_02: Um yeah.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: We actually we interviewed the NIB uh about that.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: And one of the workers, uh one of the uh employees of NIB, he was a blind gentleman who was explaining the history of that skillcraft pen.
19:20
SPEAKER_02: We can show a picture of it.
19:21
SPEAKER_02: He it it was made in 1967, and he kept calling it the 6'7 pen.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so Ben kept doing that behind him on the interview.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: Is that still a thing?
19:32
SPEAKER_02: 6'7?
19:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's well my kids will say that.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: It is still a thing.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: And maybe Chinese.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to show a picture.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: They can just pick up the pen on their desk.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: I think most people have one sitting around somewhere.
19:44
SPEAKER_02: It's got that little, little, uh the wonderful little stripe.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: Aesthetically, it's beautiful.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: It is a beautiful pen.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: It's made made in America, made by some wonderful blind professionals in America.
19:54
SPEAKER_02: He even explained how they you could jerry rig it for uh during wartime operation.
19:59
SPEAKER_02: Didn't he say you could use it for a weapon or you could have a weapon and then some kind of electrical current situation.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: If you needed to create a current with it, I can't remember exactly, but there was some like take it apart, use the metal.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we didn't.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I had to start kind of metal.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: It's what we'll coming up.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: All right.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: So maybe they're being picked on a little bit, uh, probably.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's some political angle, but at the same time, if you it's mandatory to go through the SBA, then that should be above board, you know, get a little extra scrutiny and make sure it is you know from America.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: And one thing to note, they're being completely cooperative.
20:28
SPEAKER_02: I know they're they're it kind of there's a little bit of venting, but they are being cooperative, I think.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: So they were already and they were already doing a lot of this reporting anyway.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: It's just now there's you know more official and they have to have by a certain date.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: It would be a pain.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: If all of a sudden you get this giant report forced on you by the 12th, it would, you know, during a busy time of the year, it's not fun.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: So we appreciate all the effort there.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, one more story here.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: I think we'll move on after this one, but one more story.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: A contractor may have used AI to falsify financial documents.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Um Energy is the company.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Venergy, a construction management company, was uh doing some work with the Department of Veteran Affairs, and they had the VA terminated the contract for default.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Venergy was not happy about that and actually went after them for about 4.2 million in claims because of that.
21:13
SPEAKER_02: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: So the fraud happened during the termination settlement process.
21:16
SPEAKER_02: Settlement, yeah.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: So they they were they were canceled.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're terminated.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: And now Venergy comes back and says that's wrong.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: We want four million.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: The VA comes back and says, actually, we don't owe you four million, you owe us.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: They said you owe us one million.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: So the VA wants to be.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: So the Venergy now Venergy would owe the government$1.84 million because it didn't complete the projects in time.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: So that's that sets the stage.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: So now we're going to court and they they bring both of these uh together into one.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: There were two disputes.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, Venogy wants four million, government wants one point eight million.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: The Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, this is not a GAO protest.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Now we're actually in uh a contract appeal with the Civilian Board.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: They put both together and they file Find out that Venergy allegedly is using AI to modify invoices.
22:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Which isn't good.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: And they would.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: That's what I was thinking when I threw the because it's this so much of the stuff goes under the radar.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: They they they did catch it.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: It would have cost uh the VA another$1.1 million if they didn't catch this.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: So thankfully they caught it.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think this is not a government unique issue.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, any disputes now.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you can fake and make up invoices and make changes.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: You know what's funny though about that the story is I think the there was an employ there was an employee in that company of energy who was just nuts about grok.
22:38
SPEAKER_02: And the turnover is grok history, right?
22:40
SPEAKER_02: Which which for some reason, I don't know why.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: It's using grok, it makes it sound just a little more intentional.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: Like if you stumble across, like what's GPT all about?
22:50
SPEAKER_02: I feel like if you're at the grok stage, yeah, uh this maybe you're it's a little more intentional.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: ChatGPT would be like, we advise that maybe you shouldn't modify grok's like, let's do it, bro.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's get them, let's get the VA.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Grok probably suggested it.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like no, no, no, you don't want to do it this way.
23:07
SPEAKER_02: I can get you another million.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: The employee was actually going above board, trying to get all the details organized.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's uh let's sweeten the deal for you.
23:13
SPEAKER_02: So another person on the article, uh, Jessica Tilliman's mentioned, friend, friend of our uh channel, and uh she she wrote an article uh called Blind Bind.
23:24
SPEAKER_02: Wait, buying blind.
23:26
SPEAKER_02: So buying blind, I had to look when I when you look it up on Google, by the way, you will get a reality show where a couple spends the you spends their life savings and they rely on a team to buy a home for them.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: We should be reacting.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: If we were to do a reaction episode reaction show to that show, it would be so much more interesting.
23:43
SPEAKER_02: Well, this is a this is a much more interesting uh buying blind.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: It's an article on all the ways that you can uh that fraud and corruption can get into procurement through the use of AI.
23:53
SPEAKER_02: And it's uh we can't go through all of them, but it there's just so many ways that uh that AI can corrupt the procurement system.
24:01
SPEAKER_02: I mean, with with I mean, you have the Truth in Negotiations Act, you have um you have certain disclosure acts, which when you're relying on artificial intelligence, who can it's they can very cleverly hide this stuff, it's insane.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: So they uh the article even talks about using AI uh companies to come up with financial algorithms to start going into price fixing and where even unintentionally.
24:24
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Unintentionally, they're price fixing and agreeing together like on this uh on this collusion.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Well, even if if you read text hallucinations, it sounds good at first pass, but then you read it back a little closer, you thought, but that didn't say there was nothing said.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of words, nothing actually meaningful was said.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: So now numerical hallucinations, you're just kind of reading a giant box of text or of numbers, like that looks that looks pretty good, it looks accurate.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna sit there and actually go through and verify?
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, someone spoke I mean, again, that's the responsibility of the office to make sure, okay, yeah, we're you know we're paying the right right amount, or if there's any kind of dispute, you've got to look extra close.
24:59
SPEAKER_02: Well, even like RFIs now, if you send an R if you send a request for information out to a bunch of companies, you're gonna get back AI slop.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: And if it's not AI slop, it may be something that sounds really good, but it's gonna be probably maybe an inflated uh look at what that company actually does.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm curious now what AI is costing uh hours and money because as government agencies are sending out RFIs of just that are AI written, I mean AI is gonna just keep adding stuff.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, this sounds good.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: It's three, you know, four bullet points where if I had to handwrite something or you know, an agency is handwriting something, they might be doing two.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, I'll just ask AI to do it for you.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: It dumps a bunch of stuff in there.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: So now the work is either either the contractor is gonna have to just randomly do bullet points that no one actually read.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: They just write it down for AI, and now the contractors are doing it, and or maybe they're charging more.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: So people are doing more work, maybe charging more, or just doing more work and eating the costs.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: But I've seen that on some solicitations.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I feel like they only care about the top bullet point, and the rest of AI just kind of said it sounded great.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: So here we are doing more work.
25:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: I I uh I saw a Wall Street Journal article that said that people will now use AI to write their thing, but then they'll intentionally uh do some typos.
26:07
SPEAKER_02: They'll put typos in to kind of give it that handmade look.
26:10
SPEAKER_02: You know?
26:13
SPEAKER_02: It's like pottery.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Have I asked AI to put some uh punctuation errors in there for me and misspellings to make it look more human?
26:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, maybe I've done that.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: You can put that in your prompt.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Make it look more stupid.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Like it was written by me.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, when I do my LinkedIn posts now, I type, I hand type them.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't use AI LinkedIn posts because they're so obvious.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: I type fast and furious, I don't review it, I click send because it's just, you know, I think people recognize now, like, yeah, a little more human.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: What are some rules, just for the for the viewers?
26:39
SPEAKER_02: What are some rules that you've noticed that you can tell you when you read it, whether it's a proposal, you know that it's AI.
26:45
SPEAKER_02: There's the the three things, right?
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Where they need to do it.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: I say three, yeah.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Anytime they list three things, like this is we want it to be fast.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: We want to do speedy, we want it to be quick.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, that was probably AI.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: It's not this.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: This is not a this is not a uh this is not a widget, it's a change of of pace.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
27:02
SPEAKER_02: That's the one I noticed the most.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: It's not X, it's Y.
27:05
SPEAKER_02: This is not just efficiency, it's the mission success.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: AI is getting paid by the word, apparently.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: And so it just adds extra words.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: But just gonna anyway.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: But back to the procurement fraud here, potentially.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: It's everyone's job to pay attention to the stuff.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, though, what's gonna happen is an AI is gonna create fraud through a person, and then a person is gonna do a prompt to review the invoicing and the documentation to look for fraud.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: So it really is just AI versus AI.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: No one's actually paying attention.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: So that was mentioned too in Jessica's article, Buying Blind.
27:34
SPEAKER_02: When when you're starting to use AI tools to evaluate proposals, um, companies will get really smart in using their own tools to pass that automation gateway.
27:43
SPEAKER_02: So it's it's gonna reach a person eventually, but it'll the downselected offers will reach the the human.
27:50
SPEAKER_02: And maybe um uh through automation, a lot of people will be cut out.
27:55
SPEAKER_02: So just making that gate first, you can use AI.
27:58
SPEAKER_02: So just gaming the system, figuring out.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: I mean, AI can be used for good, but but there's just so there's so much, obviously, from this article, uncharted territory.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: We're just gonna see more of this.
28:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but the good news is, I think, is it's gonna require contracting officers to maybe get more uh out of the offers and maybe doing more like oral presentations where it's like, all right, I I actually want to see you as a human being come and explain what your product does.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Have you have you looked up videos of people reading AI prompts in hearings?
28:28
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a gentleman, he's he reads, he's reading from a script, and all of a sudden he goes, and if you'd like that in a more applicable version, here you go.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: And he kept reading, he kept reading the AI prompts.
28:39
SPEAKER_02: And people listening are like, sure, do that.
28:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Or waiting.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: So one comment on the AI thing, though.
28:45
SPEAKER_02: So, so um, it used to be really challenging even before AI for to get really substantive written proposals.
28:53
SPEAKER_02: People would just uh they'd either hire a company to write the proposals for them, uh, uh, and they'd spend a lot of money doing that, or they would just cut and paste the performance work statement and just put it in.
29:04
SPEAKER_02: So it was hard enough to really figure out what is what is the what is the performance of this contractor and and figure that out from just a stack of papers they wrote.
29:13
SPEAKER_02: So that's why oral presentations were created way before AI to really get to like who is this company?
29:20
SPEAKER_02: They're just writing stuff.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: Now with AI, though, it's just completely uh Well, it's AI prompts creating the RFI, it's AI prompts submitting to the RFI.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: And eventually a person has to make a decision.
29:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: At some point.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe not.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't, maybe AI is going to decide it.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Soon AI will be doing the Farz Lava podcast.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: This is all us, baby.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: That's not a podcast.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: It's an experience.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: All right.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: So that's the news stories we have for you today.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Again, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Dose.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: It's a link in the subscription to get your news Monday to Friday from our wonderful uh editor, Ann, who puts all that together.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: And Laurent, yeah.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: And Laurent.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: So we want to get into our next segment on protests.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: I think each week it would be great to get into some protests.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: One, it just kind of shows us how to apply how people are applying and properly or improperly applying the FAR or the RFO.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, we'll I'll let you cover this one because you sent me the wrong link.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: I did a lot of research on it.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: And it was the wrong was it the same company?
30:14
SPEAKER_02: Apparently Wilson Five has protested twice and failed twice.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: The 2012 protest, the wrong one, it was to the same agency.
30:22
SPEAKER_02: So they have a history.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, uh I uh I'll say this like if we're moving into this, we're in this realm right now between two FARs, which was supposed to be the name of our podcast, and we found out another one.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, shout out to a NASA procurement uh woman, and I think she had another podcast host with her sometimes, but it was a it was a uh interview style show, uh between two fars.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: I think it's been off uh for a couple of years, but they have like 300 ton episodes, and they're good.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I encourage you to go back and watch between two fars.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: That's what we were gonna call the show They Got It First, and so now here we are at the FARS Lava.
30:56
SPEAKER_02: So, but since we're in this middle part between these, between these two FARS, um, there's gonna be a lot more a lot of the understanding of the RFO and how a lot of this stuff is gonna fly is gonna come out in the protest.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna be seeing more and more of these protests.
31:12
SPEAKER_02: So uh what one recommendation is just to go on with con, W-I-F-C-O-N, just read a protest per day, which we have a video on.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Listen to our show and we'll give you one a week.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, do that too.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, so the the one that we're gonna talk about is this Wilson Five protest.
31:28
SPEAKER_02: It it was actually decided in July of 2026.
31:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, July 17th.
31:33
SPEAKER_02: July 17th, yeah.
31:35
SPEAKER_02: So, context to this.
31:36
SPEAKER_02: This was a uh uh Wilson 5 was the company that protested.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: This was an RFQ that uh went out against a federal supply schedule, but they used the brand new RFO procedures for uh ordering from uh FARS Subpart 8.4, which if if you're familiar with the RFO, all of that's been removed and moved to the GSAR.
32:01
SPEAKER_02: So that's really the uh we can get into the details.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: But what they were it's the public building service, facilities maintenance for a bunch of buildings and combine a bunch of buildings.
32:11
SPEAKER_02: So this is a big contract, and and it serviced multiple locations throughout the metropolitan area of Omaha, Nebraska.
32:20
SPEAKER_02: And I know the first thing you think of when you think Omaha is bustling.
32:24
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's this huge metropolis, it's gonna be a big contract.
32:28
SPEAKER_02: You know what I was thinking, actually.
32:30
SPEAKER_02: This is a side thing.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, like all the superhero movies are always in like New York.
32:35
SPEAKER_02: It'd be cool if one superhero was just focused on protecting just Omaha.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: They're they're the Omaha division.
32:42
SPEAKER_02: They might be.
32:43
SPEAKER_02: They're swinging from like billboards to to McDonald's.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: If you're a comic nerd and you you know of a character that does some does spend some time in Omaha, comment below.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Omaha superhero fighting the Midwest monster.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: But there was 41 interested vendors in this.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it was big.
32:58
SPEAKER_02: So it's actually also it it was it was uh complete facilities maintenance, so snow removal, janitorial, uh big contracts on facilities maintenance.
33:07
SPEAKER_02: And they took three contracts that had already existed and they're actually consolidating it into one.
33:13
SPEAKER_02: So it it's a big, it's a big contract.
33:15
SPEAKER_02: And you can tell it's a big contract, like you said, because they did an they submitted an RFI request for information on eBY, which is the GSA way.
33:24
SPEAKER_02: You can also order from eBuy, which we'll get to in a minute.
33:26
SPEAKER_02: They chose not to.
33:27
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but they definitely did submitted their RFI on eBY and 41, was it 41?
33:33
SPEAKER_02: 41.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
33:33
SPEAKER_02: 41 companies came in.
33:35
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty good showing that this is a big deal.
33:37
SPEAKER_02: A lot of companies are interested.
33:39
SPEAKER_02: So what they decided to do, which is the basis of this protest, is instead of send their RFQ out on EBI to all those 41 companies and more, they decided to only uh submit their RFQ to some of the companies.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 16 of the original 41.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Which this is kind of common sense in procurement.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, like if you if you know you're gonna narrow down the field, then why waste 41 people's time that you know that you know was that 13 or so that you're not gonna choose from?
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Just narrow it down.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: If you already narrowed it down, narrow it down.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: Don't just don't waste.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: Let's get to right to the content that you actually need.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: So that makes sense.
34:13
SPEAKER_02: That was their reasoning.
34:13
SPEAKER_02: Their reasoning was efficiency.
34:15
SPEAKER_02: And I mean, this is part of what slows the procurement process down.
34:19
SPEAKER_02: If you are unnecessarily trying to to reach out to every single company, or then you're not doing what's practicable for efficiency.
34:29
SPEAKER_02: So as many as practicable comes up a lot in this case.
34:32
SPEAKER_02: Like, did they really do as many as practicable?
34:34
SPEAKER_02: The judge in this case said uh they did in this case and they justified it.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: And they narrowed it down based on CPAR score, right?
34:41
SPEAKER_00: So they narrowed it down by CPAR is is that something they would have published?
34:44
SPEAKER_00: So they have the RFI.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: When they time to send the C the RFQ, do they have to publish anywhere?
34:49
SPEAKER_00: This is how they narrowed the field, how they narrowed the field down to those.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: And it's really because when they're in the RFI, they're still in market research.
34:56
SPEAKER_02: They don't have to, they don't have to publicize their market research.
34:59
SPEAKER_02: All they're trying to do right now is decide how are we going to compete.
35:03
SPEAKER_02: And they know if they use GSA, the GSAR says, if you're gonna, if you're gonna not go on e-buy, then you need to uh at least try to get three companies.
35:11
SPEAKER_02: If you're oversat, I'm sure this was oversat.
35:13
SPEAKER_02: I don't think the dollar value was on this, but I think it was a pretty big, pretty big contract.
35:17
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, they used C they used a whole bunch of, they used a couple other uh factors, but one of the most interesting things about this is in the market research phase, they cracked open CPARs.
35:27
SPEAKER_02: This is usually done for past performance.
35:30
SPEAKER_02: When you're like at the source selection phase and you have a past performance review, that's when CPARs is is kind of stuck in.
35:36
SPEAKER_02: The RFO actually, they changed part 42 uh in the CPARs to say that CPARs can be done throughout the whole acquisition lifecycle.
35:45
SPEAKER_02: So they're cracking it open in the market research phase, which is a uh maybe a warning sign for contractors, make sure your CPARs are good because it's like a bad credit report.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: They said they they said what, 1% of your CPARs?
35:59
SPEAKER_00: Or you know, you can only have 1% of your CPARs give us some kind of a bad review.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: So basically 99% satisfaction or above.
36:05
SPEAKER_02: If more than 1% of all your past performance is under satisfactory.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: If so, let's, you know, aside for the contractors here for a second.
36:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you get, like you said, if you get a core, it's in a bad mood, or if something happens that's really outside your control, but the contractor gets hit on their CPARs, is one percent a little aggressive?
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Or are we, you know, I mean, so I could follow you around for a while, and if all of a sudden it's like, well, one percent.
36:31
SPEAKER_02: Satisfactory is still not it's not great.
36:34
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it it's it's it's satisfactory.
36:36
SPEAKER_02: I think there's satisfactory.
36:37
SPEAKER_02: This is a I think it's a five-point scale.
36:38
SPEAKER_02: There's like there's still good and excellent.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: So, but yeah, I've I've been part of contracts as contracting office.
36:44
SPEAKER_02: I should probably mention the uh for first podcast, I guess, that I don't care who we are, but you've got some contracting history, obviously.
36:51
SPEAKER_02: That a contracting officer, uh, there's been some instances in the post-war, the performance period where I've had a core have a personal problem with the contractor.
37:01
SPEAKER_02: And I've we've I've had to talk to them about these the CPARs narratives that they wrote.
37:07
SPEAKER_02: We're very personally charged.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: And like, I don't know if we can, you know, and I tell them, like, yeah, I know that I know they had an issue with you on this.
37:14
SPEAKER_02: Let's make sure we make the score uh appropriate to that issue, but this is really gonna follow them.
37:20
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's like for those unfamiliar with CPARs, it's the Yelp reviews for contracting.
37:25
SPEAKER_02: It's and you can look at those reviews and they follow you around.
37:29
SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, so they use that, and the court said it was okay to use that.
37:34
SPEAKER_02: Uh, there used to be a oh, this is the other thing.
37:37
SPEAKER_02: So they they went to the top 50% based on those.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they just went to the 16 companies, which you can do now according to we'll have that reference.
37:46
SPEAKER_02: It's a GFAR, uh G SAR uh 538-7103-3, allows you to either post on eBuy or uh as many FSS contractors as practicable, but at least three.
38:01
SPEAKER_02: So they did that over three.
38:03
SPEAKER_02: Court said you're fine.
38:04
SPEAKER_02: But but when they did that, um Wilson Five found out and they asked for the RFQ and they said no.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: You don't get it.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: You're not getting the RFQ.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: And that's what they protested.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that used to be a rule in the FAR.
38:18
SPEAKER_02: And the FAR, I think it was 8.404F.
38:21
SPEAKER_02: It said, if they asked, basically, I'm paraphrasing, if they ask you for an RFQ, don't say no.
38:28
SPEAKER_02: And that was removed.
38:30
SPEAKER_02: So when everything moved over to the GSAR, that rule, that requirement, did not uh move over with it.
38:36
SPEAKER_02: The court noted that, and and she said, Oh, she, by the way, like can I can we just make a comment about this person here?
38:43
SPEAKER_02: Etta Emanuele Perez.
38:45
SPEAKER_02: She wrote this opinion.
38:47
SPEAKER_02: She's awesome.
38:48
SPEAKER_02: We can show a little picture of her, maybe.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: She writes every her name is on all I looked at the five last GAO protests.
38:54
SPEAKER_02: Edda's there.
38:55
SPEAKER_02: Who it makes me wonder what's going on over there in GAO where Edda's pulling in all the work?
39:01
SPEAKER_02: Is there anybody else writing these opinions?
39:03
SPEAKER_02: No one's as good as her.
39:04
SPEAKER_02: She's the best.
39:05
SPEAKER_02: Ed is awesome.
39:06
SPEAKER_02: She's been doing this for a while, too.
39:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you always see her name at the bottom.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: Here's another if you ever see a protest where it doesn't say Ed's name on it, let us know.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Get a prize.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: We'll maybe we'll put them in the next episode.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, a lot of times you'll see a protest where the protest is still denied, but there are things the office could have done to prevent it, maybe a little bit more clear in their evaluation factors to at least avoid it.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: So even if they weren't doing anything wrong based on uh getting a denied protest, they could have been better.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: Here, is there anything really I mean, they could have put in the RFI that we're gonna select this is how we're gonna pick the next round.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: But it that doesn't seem to be anything they should have done differently.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: It's just the contractor wasn't aware of maybe the change or just throwing anything they could in the air to try to get back into the mix.
39:45
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's that's the thing.
39:47
SPEAKER_02: I think people get confused about the RFI.
39:49
SPEAKER_02: Um, it really is just market research.
39:51
SPEAKER_02: You don't have nothing needs to come out of this.
39:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
39:54
SPEAKER_02: But I think what what's frustrating for companies is when you make the RFI look like a proposal where they have to do a whole bunch of work to submit something to you, and then nothing comes out of it, and they're like, what did I just do?
40:05
SPEAKER_02: So there's also confusion on letting them know what the RFI is.
40:08
SPEAKER_02: Maybe they could have that they probably did that.
40:10
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, they they don't know it, they don't know the companies anything.
40:12
SPEAKER_02: They don't have to explain anything, they don't have to explain their market research techniques.
40:16
SPEAKER_02: And as long as they are doing things fair, which ETA said they did, uh, then uh they're competing to the maximum extent practicable, or as many FSS contractors as practicable.
40:28
SPEAKER_02: Practicable in this case meant that we can't go anymore in the name of efficiency.
40:32
SPEAKER_02: Which we these 16 is is what constitutes efficiency.
40:36
SPEAKER_02: She didn't challenge that.
40:36
SPEAKER_02: She didn't say, well, is it 16 or 17?
40:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:39
SPEAKER_02: It was CO discretion.
40:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:41
SPEAKER_02: It's practicable.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: All right.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: Um next segment, and we've already talked about this, but we're going to get into the RFO a little bit more, make sure we covered everything we wanted to.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: But the RFO segment is brought to you by ASI Education Pro, our online training platform where you can earn CLPs for the videos you've been watching on our YouTube channel.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: We also have a lot of one-pagers and a lot of RFO training, a ton of content in there.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking to get CLPs, you're looking for more RFO training and really training for procurement in general, check us out.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: We have a link in the description below.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: Talk to your office about getting licenses to uh ASI Education Pro.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a Netflix.
41:14
SPEAKER_02: That's not just education.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: It's an experience.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, we already talked about small business in part 19, not small business groups, right?
41:24
SPEAKER_00: It's now just small business.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the only change.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything we didn't cover?
41:27
SPEAKER_02: Is this our is this our part of the week?
41:29
SPEAKER_00: Are we going to do a Yeah?
41:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe part of the week, or what yeah, or it could be also the guiding principle of the week, but today it's uh part of the week because we already we had a story on SBA, and so we thought let's just stick with the theme.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Um you covered a lot of it in uh earlier.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything we should add that we didn't cover uh for part 19?
41:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's still important.
41:50
SPEAKER_02: There's still the Small Business Act.
41:52
SPEAKER_02: If you're not ordering from an existing vehicle, the rule of two still applies.
41:56
SPEAKER_02: Um the Far Companion in part 19, which is just guidance, it's suggestions, they give you some good tips on how you can utilize small businesses more.
42:06
SPEAKER_02: I will say in in my career as contracting officer, I use small business so much and with really great results.
42:12
SPEAKER_02: But I think the the point of small business, which is it needs to fit this uh tone of the RFO, which really is was the tone of the whole far to begin with, but it just it it it it the RFO makes it more clear, which is you need to be awarding uh mission first, and you need to be awarding to superior performers.
42:30
SPEAKER_02: So even with the rule of two, if yeah, there there's there could be two companies that say they can do it.
42:36
SPEAKER_02: Mission and performance outpace that.
42:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you can send an RFI out and you can get two responses with two or more responses from small businesses.
42:44
SPEAKER_02: Does that mean that you're gonna get uh superior performance or you're gonna get mission first?
42:50
SPEAKER_02: Not necessarily.
42:50
SPEAKER_02: So so I think that's that's one thing about part 19 is small business is still important.
42:56
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's the rule of two still applies, SBA is still in full swing.
43:00
SPEAKER_02: But I think for the new uh CO, the empowered CO with the RFO, uh, we do need to think about more about okay, well, even if there's two or more small businesses, we're focused on merit.
43:12
SPEAKER_02: We're focused on those good small businesses that can do the job.
43:15
SPEAKER_02: And that's yeah.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: So when it talks about discretion, then an area where they can use more discretion instead of checking the box would be delivery and price, saying, okay, uh there's two companies, great, we verified that, but now is it a reasonable price and it can be reasonably delivered as fast as maybe a larger company could.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: And before maybe it's like, well, let's just go ahead and let's not get in trouble, let's just check it.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: There's technically two, so we'll have to use one of these.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: Now they could say, well, there's technically two, but not really.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: In terms of delivery, it's not going to be there.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: And there's a ton of discretion in terms of you have to decide.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: They say they'll all say they can deliver.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: But in reality, do you trust it?
43:48
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, could you then go outside of the two, you know, the rule two and then do a larger business?
43:53
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:53
SPEAKER_02: I mean, and it always said that in the far.
43:55
SPEAKER_02: If you if you're like there's like a two pronged test, a three prong, even when you're trying to set aside to venture.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: Own small businesses or women own small businesses.
44:02
SPEAKER_02: There's this test you have to to try to figure out.
44:05
SPEAKER_02: But what people miss, I think, a lot is in that at least two responsible companies, usually there's language that says something like they can meet your requirement in terms of price delivery and uh what is it, price delivery and performance or something.
44:19
SPEAKER_02: And so that's the part that's missed a lot.
44:21
SPEAKER_02: Even price.
44:22
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, there is a little bit of uh, you know, if you're setting aside a small business, there may be a little bit of a price hike, you know, that's but if it's if it's so high that if you go to the larger market, large businesses generally, you know, can charge less.
44:38
SPEAKER_02: So, so that can come into a fact.
44:40
SPEAKER_02: The CEO has a discretion to say, you know what, uh, I want to save money, we're gonna go full and open for this.
44:45
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, I think that's the yeah, that's the main thing of the RFO.
44:49
SPEAKER_02: Small business is still good.
44:50
SPEAKER_02: We love small businesses in America, but um be smart about it, make sure that you're you're actually getting small and you will always be fighting your small business specialist because that's his or her job in your office.
45:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of small business specialists, no knock on them, but they're not necessarily mission focused.
45:07
SPEAKER_02: They're not focused necessarily on whether you're gonna get what you're paying for.
45:12
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna be focused on whether or not you're using small business, and that could go completely against uh the mission.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: And the proposed change of the size of small business doesn't really have a big impact.
45:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, other than fewer NAX codes, but it would still be the same in the RFO and just less NAIX codes to sort through.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: And those are proposed changes.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if we made that clear earlier.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: Those changes aren't in place yet.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: The SBA changes.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the SBA changes are not in place yet.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: I think I forget when, but you can leave comments and then you know you can comment on it if you have any opinions on it.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: Um they're still taking comments, so uh we'll see where that lands.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't change, you know, really change it other than fewer NAX codes.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
45:44
SPEAKER_02: That's true.
45:45
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get in a couple of listener questions.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: And again, if you would like your question answered on this show, uh it can be procurement related or not.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: We can get a little personal here if we have to.
45:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh but on this video uh or on this episode, put your questions below or again on any of our videos.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: If you're watching video and have a question, we'd love to uh have your questions there and we'll answer it.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: This first question comes from at WizKidla.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: Love that name.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: At WizKidla.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: And I think we're gonna have to there there's parts of this that we don't have answers to, so we're gonna have to maybe make up a couple things to round out the whole question for them.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna make up him or her.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna make up stuff when we answer.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if we have enough information.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: What are your thoughts on needing a JNA when utilizing an existing enterprise-wide BPA or IDIQ?
46:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you need a G uh JNA when using an enterprise-wide BPA or IDIQ.
46:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
46:32
SPEAKER_00: So that's, you know, again, there might be some things that they forgot to list here.
46:36
SPEAKER_02: I think I think we were talking, uh I think this was a comment to our far and five minutes of part six, which is the Competition and Contracting Act.
46:45
SPEAKER_02: And there's a whole bunch of exceptions if you're under part six and you want to go to only one company, or you have to go to only one company, you have to write this justification and approval.
46:55
SPEAKER_02: But part six does not apply when you're ordering under an existing vehicle.
47:00
SPEAKER_02: Did they say BPA?
47:01
SPEAKER_02: So an enterprise-wide BPA, and now with the RFO, a BPA can be using part eight, um, federal supply schedules, uh, off of federal supply schedules, part 12 commercial BPAs, part 13, simplified acquisition, non-commercial BPAs.
47:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and am I missing one?
47:20
SPEAKER_02: I feel like I'm missing one.
47:21
SPEAKER_02: No, maybe not.
47:21
SPEAKER_02: And then IDIQs under part 16, which it mentioned.
47:24
SPEAKER_02: So in all of those, you're not using a uh a justification and approval where you have to follow the rules in part six.
47:33
SPEAKER_02: There is, though, uh, there are different justifications that you need.
47:37
SPEAKER_02: So in all of these, um uh whether you're you're ordering off an existing um multiple award contract or you're using a BPA, there is still the spirit of competition.
47:47
SPEAKER_02: That's like that's one of the underlying principles in far part one.
47:51
SPEAKER_02: And so in in multiple award contracts, for example, uh the competition is called fair opportunity.
47:57
SPEAKER_02: That's the term.
47:58
SPEAKER_02: So when when you when you uh do a delivery order off of a multiple award contract, you want to give all those contract holders a fair opportunity.
48:05
SPEAKER_02: If you don't, there's sometimes called I was Air Force contracting officer, we called it the um the limitation to fair opportunity.
48:14
SPEAKER_02: And it was like a J and A, but it it was less restrictive.
48:17
SPEAKER_02: We just had to justify why we were So even it's not required, it's best practice to justify what you're doing.
48:22
SPEAKER_02: And and the part 12 and part 13, sometimes they call it a limited sources justification.
48:28
SPEAKER_02: So not a JA, but it just some kind of documentation to show that you are limiting competition to only one and why.
48:36
SPEAKER_02: And I think even in part 12 and 13, they list some reasons why that are a little different than the reasons in part six.
48:42
SPEAKER_02: So the answer to whiz kiddla is uh you don't need a J and A.
48:47
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but you you still probably need some kind of justification.
48:51
SPEAKER_02: Look at the far part you're in to find out what that is.
48:53
SPEAKER_02: The spirit.
48:53
SPEAKER_02: Keep the spirit of the J and A within you at all times.
48:56
SPEAKER_02: Keep the spirit of competition alive.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: One more question.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this comes from the at the gamers of the U at the gamers of the USA.
49:04
SPEAKER_00: The gamers of the USA.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: And it's great at.
49:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, no one had like to put all that together.
49:08
SPEAKER_00: Good job at the gamers of the USA.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: Before I read the question, he did comment that he currently has a, he or she currently has a BA in film uh and currently working in insurance.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: So current degree and work experience is not related to a contracting officer.
49:23
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, how do I get into an agency as a contracting officer?
49:27
SPEAKER_00: Should I go back to school, pursue business credit hours?
49:30
SPEAKER_00: What courses and search will be best to pursue?
49:32
SPEAKER_00: So I think there's two questions here.
49:33
SPEAKER_00: One is what training should I pursue?
49:35
SPEAKER_00: But more important, are there requirements, like actual uh business hours and uh college requirements to becoming a contracting officer?
49:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
49:44
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's first of all, it's awesome.
49:47
SPEAKER_02: This is a common question.
49:48
SPEAKER_02: You're yeah, a lot of uh viewers on our channel, too, they're not from procurement and contracting, but they want to get into it because we make it look so cool.
49:56
SPEAKER_02: It's so awesome.
49:57
SPEAKER_02: You get to wear uh tropical shirts.
50:01
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, so that that in and of itself is great.
50:03
SPEAKER_02: That way, I my first contracting office that I worked in, a lot of people there were, I just kind of stumbled into this because it was near where they work.
50:10
SPEAKER_02: It was either HR or procurement.
50:12
SPEAKER_02: So to have someone completely outside this field want to get into it because they understand kind of the some of the exciting aspects of doing government contracting, that's cool.
50:21
SPEAKER_02: Um, I think we did respond back to this uh comment on YouTube, but I would say keep watching our channel for courses.
50:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh actually, before that, let me just get into how you you apply to be a contracting officer.
50:32
SPEAKER_02: So there is a site called uh what what is it called?
50:37
SPEAKER_02: Is it it's jobs uh Jobs USA Jobs or something?
50:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
50:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, hold on.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: We gotta And is there a requirement?
50:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so there are their typical requirements.
50:45
SPEAKER_00: You gotta have a certain degree.
50:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
50:47
SPEAKER_02: So it at USA Jobs.
50:49
SPEAKER_02: You can uh the series, if you want to look for it, it's 1102-1102.
50:53
SPEAKER_02: So you can get on USA Jobs, you can put the the series name in, and then it'll tell you all of the the uh positions that are open.
51:02
SPEAKER_02: Typically they ask for 24 business credits to to actually apply for that job.
51:08
SPEAKER_02: So there is an education experience.
51:10
SPEAKER_02: But I will say right now that the workforce is um in need of, and I think we mentioned that in their comment.
51:17
SPEAKER_02: There's there's a there's need for more contracting people right now because of just the um uh the workforce, the purge.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: Would it be better then instead of going straight, like, okay, how to become an 1102 as a job description or what degree should I get?
51:29
SPEAKER_00: Is it better to take whatever degree you have and just get any job relative in the universe that you could get moved over to 1102?
51:36
SPEAKER_00: Is there certain jobs they should look for that would probably put them in that path, potentially?
51:40
SPEAKER_00: That's more that's easier to get.
51:41
SPEAKER_00: I assume just coming right out of a you know, you BA in film and you work in insurance, going straight to 1102 is probably tough.
51:48
SPEAKER_02: Well, there's so there's there's there are always companies.
51:51
SPEAKER_02: If if you if you build your knowledge, which we'll talk about that in a minute, of how you can build your knowledge, which there's so much information out there.
51:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, there are companies that need help and and people who know about government contracting, who need uh help getting into government contracts.
52:07
SPEAKER_02: So so that's one way to do it without going through the USA jobs is um get to know a company and be their government contracts person.
52:15
SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, as far as the the information, um uh George Washington Law School is one of the best institutions that releases articles.
52:25
SPEAKER_02: I think they're the number one in in federal procurement school.
52:28
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I it in my job, I would always have books and stuff with the GW Law, you know, logo on it.
52:35
SPEAKER_02: A lot of the great uh people who wrote on this in the past were associated with George Washington.
52:40
SPEAKER_02: Jessica Jessica Tullipman is there.
52:42
SPEAKER_02: Jessica is, yep.
52:42
SPEAKER_02: And so that's a great uh they release a lot of great books and and materials.
52:48
SPEAKER_02: And then um, you know, I think the the uh I used to not recommend this acquisition.gov, but now with the RFO, there's a lot of acquisition.
52:57
SPEAKER_02: They uh OMB was required in the executive order to make a website that was very clear on what the RFO RFO is.
53:05
SPEAKER_02: So just getting to know a lot of the online resources out there.
53:09
SPEAKER_02: It my take is there's not enough people uh in in in this country who know enough about this that that knowing it that it won't take long for you to just already be ahead of the curve by learning.
53:24
SPEAKER_02: We talked about with uh I talked to Scott who does our acquisition for dummies.
53:28
SPEAKER_02: He started off, we did acquisition for dummies.
53:30
SPEAKER_02: Scott started off as the dummy and he just asked he wanted to ask the stupid questions.
53:35
SPEAKER_02: I think now Scott probably knows uh more than 90% of the incoming workforce on federal contracting.
53:42
SPEAKER_02: It it's if you have the resolve to actually learn this stuff, you will be um you'll be uh filled with that with that knowledge, and then that knowledge can take you places.
53:52
SPEAKER_02: If for the government, though, you may have to get around that 24 hour credit to yeah.
53:56
SPEAKER_00: All right, perfect.
53:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh thanks for the questions.
53:59
SPEAKER_00: And uh anything else before we close here?
54:01
SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
54:02
SPEAKER_00: All right.
54:03
SPEAKER_02: So remember to uh celebrate Defense Production Act Day on September 8th.
54:08
SPEAKER_00: And then on September 9th.
54:09
SPEAKER_02: Celebrate COVID Day.
54:10
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, everyone stay inside.
54:12
SPEAKER_02: Remembering the time when we required all our contractors to abide by all of our government friends, don't go to work that day.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: Stay at home and tell your employer, look, I am celebrating the September 9th.
54:23
SPEAKER_02: Go buy sanitizer and go buy toilet paper.
54:30
SPEAKER_00: All right.
54:31
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on the Far Edge Lava.
54:33
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to our channel, leave a comment question below, and share this with a friend.
54:38
SPEAKER_00: That's how we'll get motivated to make more episodes and keep this news going.
54:42
SPEAKER_00: We'll be back next week with a friend of news stories and our focus news take today.
54:47
SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time.