Watching the Sunset: Anticipating Gao's Study of Concurrent Bid Protest Jurisdiction in the Cofc and the District Courts

Abstract

The 1970 D.C. Circuit ruling in Scanwell Labs. v. Shaffer, 424 F.2d 859, turned the issue of federal court jurisdiction over bid protest litigation into a legal experiment. Thirty years later, the putative sunset of statutory District Court jurisdiction, and a Congressional mandate that GAO undertake a comprehensive study of the need for concurrent jurisdiction, offered an opportunity to judge the success of this experiment. This brief paper reviews the history leading up to the GAO study; discusses how the protest regime helps ensure procurement integrity; critiques the scope and methodology of study; and, ultimately, argues that elimination of District Court jurisdiction hinders the opportunity of small businesses to challenge violations of federal procurement law.

Keywords: Scanwell, protests, disappointed offeror litigation

JEL Classification: H57, K13, K23, K41