On July 22, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on Government Operations, held a hearing on “Bid Protest Reform: Understanding the Problem” (Congress.gov record of hearing).
The hearing was led by the Subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions (TX), and ranking member Rep. Kweisi Mfume (MD). Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC) also offered opening remarks. The hearing (subcommittee record) was called to allow members of Congress to hear from experts about potential bid protest reforms.
Kenneth Patton, Managing Associate General Counsel at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and a member of GW Law’s Government Procurement Law Program advisory board, was the lead witness. He presented GAO’s response to Section 885 of last year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which asked for input on proposed changes, such as charging costs to losing protesters. Ken Patton explained why GAO (and the Defense Department) believe radical changes to the protest system are not needed — that the bid protest system is fundamentally sound, after a century of development. (See ABA submission on Section 885.)
Professor Christopher Yukins (GW Law) and Zachary Prince (GW Law JD 2013 (with honors), partner at the law firm of Haynes & Boone and an adjunct professor at the Law School) agreed. In his testimony, Zach Prince urged members of Congress instead to expand agency debriefings to losing bidders, to reduce bid protests and expand transparency, and Chris Yukins did the same in his testimony. See, e.g., Nathaniel Castellano & Peter Camp, Postscript III: Enhanced Debriefings: A Simple Strategy for a More Manageable Protest Process, 35 Nash & Cibinic Rep. ¶ 46 (2021). (By coincidence, GW Law the same day hosted part of its global webinar series with the Open Contracting Partnership in Asia, on transparency in contracting.)
Editor’s note: On August 14, 2025, Chris Yukins submitted his responses to follow-up questions from Chairman Pete Sessions, on potential pathways to bid protest reform.
After the hearing Chris Yukins and Zach Prince met with House staffers to discuss next steps, including a webinar that GW Law will be holding on September 9 on developments in bid protests — click above to register.
