![handle is hein.crs/govcahb0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
Cor 101 1
Amazon's Protest of DoD's JEDI Cloud
Computing Contract: A Legal Analysis
February 19, 2020
In October 2019, after an approximately two-year competitive bidding procurement process, the
Department of Defense (DoD) announced that it had awarded a Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure
(JEDI) cloud services contract to Microsoft Corporation. In November 2019, Amazon Web Services, Inc.
(AWS), the only other remaining bidder on the contract, filed a protest with the U.S. Court of Federal
Claims (COFC) challenging DoD's award of the JEDI contract. AWS filed its protest under seal but
publicly released a redacted version the following month. AWS alleges that DoD committed egregious,
substantial and pervasive errors in selecting Microsoft over Amazon based on the technical aspects of
their proposals that, standing alone, warrant the court's reversal of the award. However, in addition to
these merit-based arguments, AWS also argues that DoD's failure to evaluate appropriately the technical
aspects of AWS's and Microsoft's bids was due to the improper intervention of President Trump,
Commander in Chief of the U.S. Military and head of the Executive Branch, in the JEDI procurement and
award. AWS alleges that the President's intervention stemmed in part from the fact that AWS' owner,
Jeffrey P. Bezos, also owns the Washington Post. On February 13, 2020, the COFC issued a preliminary
injunction barring DoD from moving forward on the contract during the litigation.
Congress may have a keen interest in the outcome of this litigation, in part due to the significant amount
of federal funds at stake-$I million at minimum, but with the maximum potential of S 10 billion over 10
years if all options are exercised. Additionally, the litigation could significantly affect DoD's efforts to
modernize its computing infrastructure, which the agency has argued is directly related to its ability to
meet the country's warfighting needs and maintain technological advantages over adversaries. This Legal
Sidebar outlines the JEDI procurement process and analyzes the legal arguments underlying AWS's bid
protest.
Background
Federal procurement statutes and regulations-notably the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984
(CICA) and the Federal Acquisition R egulation (FAR), the government-wide regulation that generally
applies to acquisitions by DoD and other executive branch agencies-establish largely uniform policies
and procedures for how federal executive agencies acquire goods and services. The purpose of these
standards is to deliver on a timely basis the best value product or service to the [government], while
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
LSB10410
CRS Leg Sideba
Prepaed for Membeivs and
Cornm ittees o4 Co q _gress ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govcahb0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most