You’ve Lost a Bid for a Government Contract – Now What?

Your proposal team spent months putting together a proposal in response to a solicitation issued by the federal government and believed it had a strong chance of receiving award of the contract.  Sadly, the Government awarded the contract to another company.  Is your company just out of luck?  Or are there any actions you can take in response?

What Is a Bid Protest?

A post-award bid protest is a challenge to the award of a government contract.  If a contractor is not awarded a contract, but believes the government has made a mistake in the evaluation of its or the awardee’s proposal, it may want to consider filing a bid protest.  The grounds for post-award protests are discussed below.

Pre-award protests are typically challenges to the terms of a solicitation.  It’s important to note that a protest to the solicitation’s terms is due before the due date for proposal submission. 

Grounds for Protest

Simple disagreement with the federal agency’s evaluation of your proposal is not a strong protest ground.  For instance, if you believe your proposal should have received a higher rating because your proposed solution contained certain features that you think are beneficial to the Government but were not required by the solicitation, this would amount to a disagreement with the Government as to the value of those additional features.  This would not be a successful protest ground. 

On the other hand, if you believe the Government overlooked portions of your proposal and downgraded you as a result that could support a successful protest ground.

The following are potential protest grounds:

• Unstated evaluation criteria: The federal agency downgraded your proposal because it did not include an element that was not required by the solicitation
• Misreading or overlooking proposal information: The federal agency rated your proposal lower than it should have because it either misread or overlooked portions of your proposal.
• Disparate treatment: The Government cannot treat contractors unfairly when evaluating their proposals. If the Government recognized a feature as a strength in one contractor’s proposal, but did not consider it a strength in your proposal, that would amount to disparate treatment.
• Misleading or Unequal Discussions: If the Government engages in discussions with the contractor after it submits its proposal, it cannot mislead the contractor to make detrimental changes in its proposal.  Likewise, if the Government informs one contractor that it has concerns about its proposal and allows it to resolve the issue, but does not allow another contractor to resolve an issue, then discussions could be unequal.
• Unreasonable cost or price evaluation: The agency did not reasonably evaluate whether the contractor’s price was realistic.
• Latent ambiguity: While issues with the solicitation typically must be addressed in a pre-award protest, if the solicitation included a term that the contractor interpreted differently than the Government and was downgraded as a result, but the ambiguity was not obvious, then the latent ambiguity can be raised in a post-award protest.

These are common protest grounds, but not an exhaustive list. 

The GAO does not reevaluate proposals, but rather reviews the record to see if the agency’s evaluation was reasonable and in accordance with the solicitation.  It is important to note that it’s not enough for the Government to have made an error in evaluating your proposal; to win, the contractor must have had a substantial chance of receiving the award without the errors.

The Protest Process at GAO

The majority of bid protests are filed at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”).  Contractors who are not awarded a contract have to submit their protest within 10 days of when the protest grounds are known or should have been known, with some exceptions.  Because of the short timeline, companies that are considering filing a bid protest should contact an experienced government contracting attorney at Hirschler as soon as possible so we can determine if there are strong grounds for pursuing a protest.

Protests at the GAO typically are no more than 100 days, starting from the date the protest is filed until the GAO issues a decision. 

Possible Outcomes

There are several potential outcomes to a protest. 

• The federal agency try to dismiss the protest if the protest does not contain valid protest grounds, was untimely, or for other reasons. The GAO would then have to determine whether to dismiss the protest or allow it to proceed.
• Alternatively, if the agency realizes that mistakes were made in the procurement process, the agency can choose to take what is known as “corrective action.” This could consist of re-evaluating your proposal and/or other offeror’s proposals to fix the errors.  This does not necessarily mean the contract will be awarded to the protester. 
• If the agency does not believe it made any mistakes, it could defend its award decision. The agency would file a report containing documents related to its evaluation of proposals.  Then the protester would then have an opportunity to respond and raise any additional protest grounds it discovered after reviewing the agency’s report.  The awardee also could intervene into the protest and support the agency’s position.  After briefing, the GAO would make a recommendation as to what the agency should do.  Agencies typically follow the GAO’s recommendations, but are not required to do so. 
• The parties could choose to participate in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), which is a more flexible approach.

Other Forums

The GAO is the most prevalent forum for bid protests, but it is not the only forum.  Disappointed bidders also could file in the Court of Federal Claims, which does not have strict deadlines for filing a protest, or could file an agency-level protest with the federal agency that awarded the contract. 

[Last updated June 2026]

Ambika “Ambi” J. Biggs is a government contracts attorney with extensive experience representing government contractors and counseling them on the complex regulations governing federal procurement. She has experience challenging and defending procurement decisions in bid protests before the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and representing clients in size and status challenges before the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).