This year has seen several big and contentious policy changes affecting government contractors, including the rollout of the Pentagon’s sweeping new cybersecurity rule and restrictions on anti-bias training affecting contractors’ workforces.
Commenting on the anti-bias training, Franklin Turner, co-chair of the Government Contracts Practice Group, said:
“If you look at the look at the standard that’s in there, what it does is it encourages anyone who disagrees with the content of a training that they receive to contact OFCCP and file a complaint, and to swing the sword above the head of contractor with respect to potential penalties.”
The reason the backlash has been widespread is that diversity and inclusion training is extremely common in the corporate world, and those trainings are “meant to reflect the reality of the world and to teach people about certain things, not to sugarcoat the situation.”
When asked about Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, often referred to as the Huawei Ban, Alex Major, co-chair of the Government Contracts Practice Group, added:
In the meantime, ahead of a final rule, contractors will “need to document and memorialize their understanding and interpretation of the poorly defined terms,” so they can demonstrate that they have tried to make a reasonable interpretation of those terms.