Moderator:
Steven Gillingham, Assistant Director, United States Department of Justice
Panelists:
Alicia Hunt, Trial Attorney, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Jonathan Ng, Innovation Division Director (Acting), U.S. Agency for International Development
Joshua Schnell, Partner, Cordatis LLP
Mark Sweet, Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
Summary:
Federal grants and cooperative agreements make up a sizeable portion of the U.S. government’s annual discretionary spending—rivaling the amount the government spends annually on procurement contracts. The importance of the assistance that the U.S. government provides with these agreements also is considerable and broad, ranging in objectives from scientific development and funding for key research and development projects, to foreign policy and funding of international development projects, to encouragement of domestic social programs. Procurement contracts might serve similar objectives, but grants and cooperative agreements, but their award, administration, and structure are quite different than the award, administration, and structure of procurement contracts. These differences also make grant litigation very different from procurement litigation, and the ability of recipients to seek relief from disputes or allegations of mistreatment may be considerably truncated in some circumstances.