Federal Government Considering Inflation Relief for Contractors

Seyfarth Shaw – Both the General Services Administration and the Department of Defense are recognizing the impact of the eight percent rate of inflation on federal contractors. On September 9, 2022, DOD released a memo providing guidance to contracting officers “about the range of approaches available to them” to manage the effect of inflation on existing firm fixed price contracts. Similarly, GSA provided new direction to its contracting officers permitting easier access to the economic price adjustment clause in GSA contracts. Unfortunately for contractors, this does not mean an automatic, or necessarily an easy, path to recouping the costs lost to inflation.