A Blank Rome team achieved significant results successfully defending a $45 billion government contract—one of the largest services contracts ever issued—to manage and safely remove radioactive waste at the Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) Hanford site in Washington State. DOE initially awarded the $45 billion contract to our client Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (“H2C”) in 2023. Since that time, Blank Rome has fought to reinstate and uphold the award through a series of disputes in every conceivable forum, including an agency protest, Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) protest, multiple Court of Federal Claims protests, and an appeal at the Federal Circuit.
For example, at one point, the Government determined that the initial award to H2C had to be set aside and Blank Rome worked to pursue an appeal of that decision and maintain H2C’s eligibility for a new award. The appeal was featured as one of Law360’s “Government Contracts Cases to Watch in 2024.” In another instance, a competitor challenged H2C’s eligibility in a bid protest at GAO and Blank Rome succeeded in getting the case dismissed. Hanford Tank Disposition Alliance, B-422170.1 (Dec. 21, 2023).
H2C won the contract a second time, prompting a new protest at the Court of Federal Claims. On September 8, 2024, the Court entered judgment denying the competitor’s protest, granting a tremendous victory to Blank Rome and H2C.
Because of its huge value and novel legal issues, the protest received extensive coverage in the press. On August 29, 2024, Law360 featured the case as one of the most significant government contracts cases to be decided in 2024. And, when the latest decision was unsealed on October 8, 2024, Law360 and Bloomberg covered the ruling.
The Blank Rome team was led by Luke Meier with significant and invaluable contributions from Scott Arnold, Stephanie Harden, Michael Montalbano, and David Bodner.
