Compliance Stuff

The Department of War’s (“DoW”) dispute with Anthropic continues to evolve. Should you, as a government contractor, change your relationships with Anthropic or its products as a result?  To recap the story: Two weeks ago, DoW designated Anthropic, a major provider of AI tools, including the only AI tool cleared for classified systems, as a supply chain risk following a breakdown in negotiations over contractual use restrictions on Anthropic’s Claude model. This marked the first time a U.S.-based company has ever been designated a supply chain risk. A few days prior, DoW considered using the Defense Production Act to ensure preferred access and potentially compel changes to Anthropic’s products. After the designation, the President instructed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic technology, and DoW statements implied contractors should not engage commercially with Anthropic . Multiple  legal  commentators  questioned whether the Department’s actions exce...

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) recently made updates to several documents and definitions for Minnesota government contractors. This is the third article in a series focused on the compliance responsibilities of Minnesota contractors holding workforce certificates that the MDHR issued. The  first part  in the series covered the workforce certificate application, affirmative action program template, annual compliance report (ACR), ACR instructions, and nondiscrimination poster.  Part two  covers the Minnesota Equal Pay Certificate. In part three, we discuss workforce certificate audits. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) may request information from a workforce certificate holder to evaluate the contractor’s efforts to implement its compliance plan to maintain a workforce free from discrimination under the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA). According to the MDHR, workforce certificate holders can expect to be audited at least once during...