When a Federal Circuit panel held that subcontractors had standing to challenge procurement violations, Judge Clevenger warned of a flood. Under the panel’s holding, thousands of subcontractors could inundate the Court of Federal Claims with allegations that agencies had violated applicable procurement laws. Progress on major programs could slow as the Government dealt with a wave of new protest litigants.
On August 28, 2025, the full Federal Circuit reversed course. The Court reaffirmed the long-standing definition of “interested party,” holding that only actual or prospective bidders or offerors with a direct economic interest in the outcome of the procurement may protest.
Background
The case involved a contract awarded by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (“NGA”) under the SAFFIRE program. The contract sought both a data repository and advanced computer vision artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools.
Read the full post on our Government Contracts Navigator blog.
