Showdown Looms on Cost Accounting Standards

The Federal Circuit’s decision in The Boeing Company v. United States clears the way for resolution of Boeing’s substantive challenge to a controversial Federal Acquisition Regulation provision that can give the government windfall recoveries in Cost Accounting Standards matters. The case is notable for several reasons:

• The court clarified the circumstances in which a contractor will be found to have waived its rights to object to a FAR provision.
• The court provided a useful primer on the three different kinds of jurisdiction available under the Tucker Act.
• The Court of Federal Claims will now address Boeing’s substantive challenge to FAR 30.606, which directs contracting officers to ignore offsets that save the government money when calculating the impact of changes to a contractor’s cost accounting practices.