| Guest: | Richard Arnolt |
| Title: | Partner at Bass, Berry & Sims |
| Summary: | The government continues to test the reach of the False Claims Act in contractor compliance cases. Recent settlements suggest employment practices may receive the same scrutiny as other contractual obligations. |
The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton provides expert insights on current events in the federal community. Read more interviews to keep up with daily news and analysis that affect the federal workforce. Reach out to Terry and the Federal Drive producers with feedback and story ideas at [email protected].
Interview transcript
Terry Gerton The Department of Justice has recently settled some allegations against Deloitte around employment practices that they say violated anti-discrimination requirements tied to government contracts. This follows on a similar settlement with IBM earlier this year. So what is happening that is turning what looks like an HR issue around who’s hired and trained and promoted to a government contracting issue?
Richard Arnolt That’s a very good question. I think the main thing that’s happening is one of the quickest turnabouts in federal policy on the hiring and employment issues that we’ve seen in recent decades from the prior administration, the Biden administration, was encouraging a lot of practices that the Trump administration now views as being illegal and improper. And in May, 2025, the Department of Justice stood up the civil rights...
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