Effective Sept. 8, 2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will require government contractors and subcontractors  to use the E-Verify system to verify their employees’ eligibility to work in the United States if their contract includes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify Clause.

According to information published on the USCIS website, in July, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano “strengthened employment eligibility verification by announcing the Administration’s support for the regulation that will award federal contracts only to employers who use E-Verify to check employee work authorization.”

E-Verify is a free online platform that compares information from the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) against federal government databases to verify workers’ employment eligibility. It works to deter unauthorized individuals from attempting to work and also helps encourage employers to comply with federal immigration laws.

After Sept. 8, companies awarded a contract with an “e-verify clause”, will be required to enroll in E-Verify within 30 days of the contract award date. E-Verify will then confirm that any employee working for the company that is contracted, is legally able to work in the U.S.

Click here for more information on E-verify.

According to a recent Las Vegas Business Press article, a government seminar held in Las Vegas drew a crowd of approximately 60 business owners together to learn about the opportunity available through federal government contracting.

According to the article, the seminar drew “architects, engineers, financial service providers and other professionals who (were) looking to tap into government contracts as private-sector projects dry up. What used to be a largely untouched frontier is becoming a battlefield as companies see the county as a business partner that could bring in new revenue.”

“People like us wouldn’t typically approach things like this, but right now government projects are the way to go,” said Gloria Long-Hernandez of architectural firm GMRA. “We are definitely interested in the new opportunities and we have all the credentials for them.”

“There were times when we would send out requests for proposals and no one would show up,” said Nita Lopez, the county small-business coordinator who produced the event. “Now people would even come to prebids. The providers are hungry for jobs and it’s a good thing for us.”

Did you know that the B2G Institute offers free workshops on doing business with the government? Click here to find out when we will be in your city.

According to a recent Federal Registrar article, the government is developing a database to track federal contractor performance.  

 According to the Proposed Rule, current federal contractors with more  than $10 million in current grants or contracts will have to submit data on any criminal, civil or administrative proceedings against them dating back three years. The rule projects that each year about 5,000 contractors will file reports.

 Federal contracting officers will be required to review the database prior to making award decisions for all new contracts worth more than $500,000, the proposed rule stated.

 If contracting officers determine that an “otherwise successful offeror is not a responsible source due to lack of satisfactory performance record or satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics,” then they must include such information in the system.

 “The database will be private and only federal officials will have access. Contractors will be able to view information about themselves, and post comments in response to information that has been included by the government”, the proposal said.

 According to David Drabkin, GSA’s deputy associate administrator for acquisition policy, “GSA expects to award a contract by the end of September that will implement a new way for the agency to manage and possibly merge the nine separate acquisition-related databases that make up its Integrated Acquisition Environment.”

 For more information, check out the proposed rule.

By now, government contractors and “would be” government contractors are aware of Recovery.gov, a Web site designed to track stimulus-related spending.

 But who is behind this Web site? Who is behind monitoring stimulus-related spending and projects? The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board is the appointed “watchdog for the American public on the use of Recovery Act funds.” Earl E. Devaney, appointed by the president, serves as Board chairman.

 The Board, spawned out of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also includes 12 federal Inspectors General from various government agencies. The Board has two principal goals: to prevent and detect waste, fraud and mismanagement and to provide the American people with extraordinary transparency on how Recovery Act funds are being used by states, local governments, and private recipients.

 The Board also maintains Recovery.gov, which provides information on agency plans and programs and disbursements around the country.

Social networking is no longer just for bored college kids. The federal government is now twittering!

 Check out “The Feed” to see the government’s latest “tweets”!

B2G Institute is also on Twitter.  Check out the B2G’s Twitter page for federal government contract news, B2G Institute updates, and small business resources. 

Check out the B2G Institute’s feed at: http://twitter.com/b2ginstitute.

Citizens are working to help the new administration “keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly and to hold public officials accountable for the taxpayer money they spend” through an online forum called Stimulus Watch.  

While this forum does not directly relate to stimulus bill projects, the projects posted here are candidates for funding by federal grant programs. Learn more by reading the Stimulus Watch FAQs.

 So how does this online non-profit forum, started by two George Mason University senior research fellows, work? Users across the country with local knowledge about the proposed projects in their respective cities find, discuss, and rate those projects. The forum allows users to vote for or against projects in their communities, and even comment on them.

A recent CNN Money article outlined the newly introduced Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009.  Introduced on May 21, by Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., the bill moves to amend the Small Business Act to ensure fairness and transparency in contracting with small business concerns.

Here’s the problem: Although federal guidelines mandate that 23% of all government contracts be awarded to small businesses, “at least 16 companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenues were among the top 100 small business contractors in 2008”.   The article also claims that “giant defense contractors Lockheed Martin (LMT, Fortune 500) and General Dynamics (GD, Fortune 500) each earned more than $120 million in small business contract payments last year.”

The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009 prohibits publicly traded and foreign-owned companies (or their subsidiaries) from being classified as U.S. small businesses for government contracting purposes. “For far too long, large corporations have benefited when they should not have,” Johnson says.

Check out the article for more information on different opinion of the act.