The FY26 National Defense Authorization Act allows the Department of Defense to withhold up to 5% of payments from contractors who protest a follow-on award before the Government Accountability Office, with forfeiture triggered if GAO dismisses the protest for lacking any reasonable or factual basis. 

Adam Bartolanzo and Mitch Dolman wrote in The Procurement Lawyer, a publication of the American Bar Association's Section of Public Contract Law, about how the provision could disproportionately chill legitimate protests and how implementation raises unresolved doctrinal issues. 

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