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  "description": "You should not care.\n\nCategories: 8(a), ANC sole-source, new requirement\n\nDate: 16 December 2025\n\nURL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423805,b-423805.2\n\nABSS and CICONIX protested DHA’s decision to award a sole-source 8(a) contract to Chenega, an Alaska Native Corporation, for research support services. They argued the agency had effectively promised a competitive 8(a) follow-on and therefore could not pivot to a sole-source ANC award.\n\nGAO denied the protests. The key point was that the protest",
  "path": "/abss-solutions-inc-ciconix-llc-b-423805-b-423805-2/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-27T12:43:20.000Z",
  "site": "https://washingtonhorizon.com",
  "tags": [
    "https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423805,b-423805.2"
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  "textContent": "### You should not care.\n\nCategories: 8(a), ANC sole-source, new requirement\n\n**Date:** 16 December 2025\n\n**URL:** https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423805,b-423805.2\n\nABSS and CICONIX protested DHA’s decision to award a sole-source 8(a) contract to Chenega, an Alaska Native Corporation, for research support services. They argued the agency had effectively promised a competitive 8(a) follow-on and therefore could not pivot to a sole-source ANC award.\n\nGAO denied the protests. The key point was that the protested award was treated as a new requirement, not the same one the agency had earlier contemplated competing. DHA had significantly descoped the effort, shrinking it from the much larger planned follow-on to a materially smaller contract. Under SBA’s rules, that magnitude of change was enough to make it a new requirement and therefore eligible for sole-source award to an ANC.\n\nBecause the agency had not removed the same requirement from an announced competitive 8(a) procurement, the sole-source award did not violate SBA regulations.\n\n#### Digest\n\nProtests alleging that agency failed to comply with Small Business Administration (SBA) regulations when awarding a sole-source contract to an Alaska Native Corporation is denied where the record reflects that the requirement was not previously competed within the SBA's section 8(a) program.",
  "title": "ABSS Solutions, Inc.; CICONIX LLC (B-423805, B-423805.2)",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-27T12:43:21.054Z"
}