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The U.S. Appeals Courtfor the Federal Circuit ruledthat the Defense Department'ssmall, disadvantaged businesscontracting rule was unconstitutional.The jury is still out onwhether the ruling spells troublefor other small-businessprograms. This was one ofthree recent decisions thathave unsettled the smallbusinesscommunity.President-electBarack Obama'srhetoric at times sounds like hewants to cut contracting jobs,yet at other times he talksabout smart contracting withbetter management and moreoversight. Time will tell howstrong the legs are for thecampaign promise to curbcontracting. The pledge to cutoutsourcing came in campaignletters to the AmericanFederation of GovernmentEmployees.3 In a campaignletter to the AmericanFederation of GovernmentEmployees union, President-electBarack Obama scolded theTransportation SecurityAdministration for awarding a$1.2 billion human resourcessupport contract to LockheedMartin Corp. Obama pledgedthat under his administration,government workers would havethe chance to compete to keeptheir jobs. Lockheed counteredthat HR support has alwaysbeen done by TSA's contractors. A disputebetween a subcontractor andprime contractor has landed incourt. Bollinger Shipyards wants $12 million to settle claimsrelated to the remaking of theDeepwater cutters that wererejected by the Coast Guard.Bollinger was a subcontractor toNorthrop Grumman Corp. andwas hired to extend cuttersfrom 110 feet to 123 feet. TheCoast Guard asked for a refund.Financial problemscontinue to bog downBearingPoint Inc. Its plan to sellsome or all of its businessesproved unsuccessful because ofthe current credit crisis. Thecompany is now trying to renegotiateits debt. The McLean,Va., company faces a deadline ofApril 15, 2009. On that date,creditors can demand paymentof $200 million, plus interest.Sun Microsystems Inc.announced that it will lay off5,000 to 6,000 workers, or15 percent to 18 percent of itsworkforce. The company said itwants to cut inefficiencies in theface of a new economic reality. TheHomeland Security Departmentis planning a $455 million contractto build and operate aresearch and development centerfor systems engineeringand development. TheHomeland Security SystemsEngineering and DevelopmentInstitute would help DHS identifyand implement best practicesfor technical systemsengineering and acquisitions.The Project on GovernmentOversight (POGO) updated its database of alleged contractormisconduct. The POGO databaseis controversial amongcontractors because it includesinstances in which violationsare alleged and settlementterms are agreed upon withoutan admission of wrongdoing.POGO officials say such informationought to be includedand made public to showwhether a contractor has a patternof settling allegations ofviolations. The word"shall" made all the differencefor the Government AccountabilityOffice when it decidedthat the Historically UnderutilizedBusiness Zone(HUBZone) program gets preferenceabove all other small-businessprograms. The FederalAcquisition Regulation uses theword "shall" in referring to theHUBZone program and "may"in referring to other programs.Based on statements he madeduring the presidential campaign,President-elect BarackObama's technology planscould be relatively beneficialfor U.S. information technologycompanies, according to aStandard & Poor's survey.Obama vowed to ensure anopen Internet, encouragea modern communicationsinfrastructure, improve competitiveness,and use scienceand technology to solveproblems.