Minnesota county challenges federal contract that sends teen pregnancy prevention work to a consulting firm
Hennepin County filed a bid protest Oct. 14 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims against an award worth up to $86.1 million to Guidehouse. The county says the award was rushed and broke competition law, months after most of the program's grants to local providers were ended.
Federal order to Guidehouse for adolescent social and youth engagement services
Washington. Hennepin County, Minn., has asked a federal court to block a contract worth up to $86.1 million that the Department of Health and Human Services awarded to the consulting firm Guidehouse for a national teen pregnancy prevention resource center. The county filed its bid protest Oct. 14 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, according to the court's docket.
For more than a decade, the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program has given about $100 million a year in competitive grants to health departments, universities and nonprofits that run evidence-based programs for teens, NPR reported. At the end of June, HHS ended 53 of those grants, totaling $67 million, saying they were "normalizing sexual activity for minors." Hennepin County was among the grantees that lost funding, and in July it joined other groups in a separate lawsuit over the terminations, which is pending.
What the county alleges
Federal spending records show an order to Guidehouse Inc. of McLean, Va., signed Sept. 30, the last day of the federal fiscal year, for "ACF adolescent social and youth engagement services," with $69.9 million obligated and a potential value of $86.1 million. The record does not name the teen pregnancy program; the county's complaint makes that connection, The Imprint reported.
According to The Imprint's account of the complaint, the government sent a request for quotations, which was not made public, to a handful of contractors, gave them less than a week to respond and made its award within 36 hours. The county argues that this broke four federal statutes on transparency and competition, as well as the 2009 law that created the program, and that Guidehouse "does not have any past performance or other experience" running such programs. The federal record describes the order as competed, with two offers received.
The county asks the court to block the contract permanently and order the government to compete it again. It is represented by Democracy Forward.
What comes next
The case is before Judge Marian Blank Horn. The docket shows a motion to intervene filed Oct. 19 and ruled on the same day, a status conference Oct. 20 and an order for a status report Oct. 21; those filings are not public.
Cody Inman, principal deputy assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, which made the award, previously worked at Guidehouse. An HHS spokesperson told The Imprint he was recused from the decision. HHS declined to comment to NPR, citing the litigation, and Guidehouse did not respond to either outlet.
The terminations reached nonprofits as well. Kristin Fairholm, who leads EyesOpenIowa, told NPR that the grant her organization lost was a quarter of its budget.
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