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Last month, the US Government Accountability Office ("GAO") issued its Annual Reportto Congress, as required by the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984, 31 U.S.C. § 3554(e)(2), on bid protest statistics for fiscal year 2025.
Included in the Report, is the table set out below, which highlights the critical statistics for FY 2025, along with those from the prior four fiscal years:
Bid Protests Statistics for FY 2021-2025
|
FY2025 |
FY2024 |
FY2023 |
FY2022 |
FY2021 |
|
|
Cases Filed |
1688 (down 6%) |
1803 (down 11%) |
2025 (increase of 22%) |
1658 (down 12%) |
1897 (down 12%) |
|
Cases Closed |
1737 |
1706 |
2041 |
1655 |
2017 |
|
Merit (Sustain + Deny) Decisions |
380 |
386 |
608 |
455 |
581 |
|
Number of Sustains |
53 |
61 |
188 |
59 |
85 |
|
Sustain Rate |
14% |
16% |
31% |
13% |
15% |
|
Effectiveness Rate |
52% |
52% |
57% |
51% |
48% |
|
ADR5 (cases used) |
53 |
76 |
69 |
74 |
76 |
|
ADR Success Rate |
91% |
92% |
90% |
92% |
84% |
|
Hearings |
.5% (3 cases) |
.2% (1 case) |
2% (22 cases) |
.27% (2 cases) |
1% (13 cases) |
.
In fiscal year 2025, protesters filed 1,688 cases at GAO, while GAO closed 1,737 cases, including 359 cases falling under GAO's bid protest jurisdiction over task or delivery orders placed under indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts.
Notably, the number of sustained protests is the lowest it has been in some time, while the 14% sustain rate, is consistent with recent trends (including FY 2023, when accounting for an anomalous 100-plus sustains relating to a single procurement). And while that percentage appears low, the more telling metric for prospective protesters is the "Effectiveness Rate." The Effectiveness Rate includes the percentage of cases where the protester obtains any relief, not only as a result of a sustained protest, but also voluntary corrective action taken prior to a GAO decision on the merits. That number continues to hover around 50%, which can be taken as an encouraging sign for protesters and also reflects agencies' increased willingness to take voluntary corrective action.
Additionally, and perhaps related to agencies being more likely to take corrective action, the number of decisions on the merits continues on a downward trend, with GAO issuing only 380 decisions on the merits.
GAO, in its Report, also highlighted its most frequent bases for sustaining protests:
Of the protests resolved on the merits during fiscal year 2025, our Office sustained 14 percent of those protests. Our review shows that the most prevalent reasons for sustaining protests during the 2025 fiscal year were: (1) unreasonable technical evaluation; (2) unreasonable cost or price evaluation; and (3) unreasonable rejection of proposal.
These grounds are not particularly surprising; are raised in the vast majority of all bid protest filings; and indicate that protesters consider a broad approach when attempting to challenge an unfavorable award decision.
Members of the Butzel Aerospace and Defense Team have significant experience with bid protests at not only GAO but also at the Court of Federal Claims and at the agency level. Please reach out to the authors of this Client Alert or your Butzel attorney for further information.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
