ACC NCR: The Basics of Federal Non-Traditional Contract Vehicles (Grants, OTAs, and Cooperative Agreements)

Year-over-year, the Federal Government spends more taxpayer dollars via non-traditional contract vehicles than FAR-based procurements. In FY22 alone, the Federal Government spent $1.1 trillion on grants and cooperative agreements as compared to $576 billion in traditional, FAR-based contracts (a stunning gap considering the delta doesn’t even account for the contextually trivial handful of billions awarded via Other Transaction Agreements (OTAs)). Looking ahead, the Federal Government is committed to spending even more through non-traditional vehicles. Recently, Congress passed several key pieces of legislation – including the American Rescue Plan Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act – that collectively allocate trillions more for grants, cooperative agreements, and OTAs, with certain programs specifically targeted to commercial companies that have no previous experience performing these non-traditional vehicles.

Given this unprecedented investment of taxpayer dollars, and the non-traditional entities soon to receive these awards, the goal of this program is to provide a high-level overview of grants, cooperative agreements, and OTAs by comparing and contrasting with their FAR-based counterparts. Also, we’ll help you identify the key elements of each vehicle type so you can issue spot, and walk through the risks/rewards of each vehicle so you can advise business leaders before they (electronically) sign on the dotted line. 

Presented by Ryan Roberts and Anne Perry, Partners from Sheppard Mullin, Marko Kipa, Deputy General Counsel at Comcast Cable, and Tim Allsup, Senior Counsel at RTI International.

1.5 Hours of VA MCLE pending.