Secretary of Defense v. Raytheon Company ( 2023 )


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  • Case: 21-2304    Document: 51    Page: 1    Filed: 01/03/2023
    United States Court of Appeals
    for the Federal Circuit
    ______________________
    SECRETARY OF DEFENSE,
    Appellant
    v.
    RAYTHEON COMPANY, RAYTHEON MISSILE
    SYSTEMS,
    Appellees
    ______________________
    2021-2304
    ______________________
    Appeal from the Armed Services Board of Contract Ap-
    peals in Nos. 59435, 59436, 59437, 59438, 60056, 60057,
    60058, 60059, 60060, 60061, Administrative Judge David
    D’Alessandris, Administrative Judge Cheryl L. Scott, Ad-
    ministrative Judge Richard Shackleford.
    ______________________
    Decided: January 3, 2023
    ______________________
    DANIEL B. VOLK, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil
    Division, United States Department of Justice, Washing-
    ton, DC, argued for appellant. Also represented by
    MICHAEL GRANSTON, PATRICIA M. MCCARTHY; ALEXANDER
    MARTIN HEALY, Contract Disputes Resolution Center, De-
    fense Contract Management Agency, Hanscom Air Force
    Base, MA.
    JOHN WILLIAM CHESLEY, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
    Case: 21-2304    Document: 51     Page: 2    Filed: 01/03/2023
    2              SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY
    LLP, Washington, DC, argued for appellees. Also repre-
    sented by LINDSAY MIRIAM PAULIN, AMIR C. TAYRANI;
    DHANANJAY S. MANTHRIPRAGADA, Los Angeles, CA; NICOLE
    OWREN-WIEST, ERIN NICOLE RANKIN, Crowell & Moring
    LLP, Washington, DC.
    DOUGLAS W. BARUCH, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP,
    Washington, DC, for amici curiae Aerospace Industries As-
    sociation, National Association of Manufacturers. Also
    represented by WILLIAM BARRON ARBUTHNOT AVERY,
    JENNIFER M. WOLLENBERG; SHEILA A. ARMSTRONG, Dallas,
    TX; CATHERINE LYNN ESCHBACH, Houston, TX. Amicus cu-
    riae Aerospace Industries Association also represented by
    MATTHEW F. HALL, Dunaway & Cross, PC, Washington,
    DC.
    ______________________
    Before MOORE, Chief Judge, PROST and TARANTO, Circuit
    Judges.
    PROST, Circuit Judge.
    The Secretary of Defense (“Secretary”) appeals an
    Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (“Board”) deci-
    sion rejecting the government’s claim that Raytheon Co.
    (“Raytheon”) included unallowable costs in its final indi-
    rect-cost proposals for 2007 and 2008. We conclude that
    the Board erred in interpreting Raytheon’s corporate prac-
    tices and policies, which are inconsistent with the Federal
    Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”), Chapter I of Title 48 of the
    Code of Federal Regulations, and which led Raytheon to
    charge the government for unallowable costs. We therefore
    reverse.
    BACKGROUND
    I
    In cost-reimbursement contracts with the United
    States, the government agency agrees to pay the
    Case: 21-2304     Document: 51     Page: 3    Filed: 01/03/2023
    SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY                  3
    contractor’s allowable costs. See 
    48 C.F.R. § 52.216-7
    . This
    case involves indirect costs, which are incurred as part of
    normal business operations rather than in performing a
    specific contract. 
    Id.
     § 31.203(b). Each year, contractors
    submit indirect-cost rate proposals, which provide a sched-
    ule of all claimed expenses. Id. § 52.216-7(d)(2). A contrac-
    tor may not pass on all of its costs to the government; some
    costs are unallowable by law, and the contractor must cer-
    tify that its incurred-cost submissions do not include any
    unallowable costs. See 
    10 U.S.C. § 2324
    (e), (h) (2020). 1
    An allowable cost is a cost that complies with all of the
    following requirements: (1) reasonableness; (2) allocabil-
    ity; (3) “[s]tandards promulgated by the [Cost Accounting
    Standards (“CAS”)] Board, if applicable; otherwise, gener-
    ally accepted accounting principles and practices appropri-
    ate to the circumstances”; (4) “[t]erms of the contract”; and
    (5) “[a]ny limitations set forth in” subpart 31.2 of Title 48
    of the Code of Federal Regulations. 
    48 C.F.R. § 31.201-2
    (a).
    An expressly unallowable cost is “a particular item or type
    of cost which, under the express provisions of an applicable
    law, regulation, or contract, is specifically named and
    stated to be unallowable.” 
    48 C.F.R. § 31.001
    .
    Subpart 31.2 outlines the allowability of specific costs
    and makes some expressly unallowable even if the cost oth-
    erwise meets the general allowability criteria of § 31.201-
    2(a).   Relevant here, “lobbying and political activity
    costs”—which are costs associated with “[a]ttempts to in-
    fluence the outcomes of” elections, referenda, initiatives, or
    the introduction, enactment, or modification of legisla-
    tion—and “organization costs”—including costs associated
    with “planning or executing the organization or
    1   Section 2324 has since been repealed. See William
    M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act
    for Fiscal Year 2021, 
    Pub. L. No. 116-283,
     Div. A, Title
    XVIII, sec. 1881(a), 
    134 Stat. 4293
    .
    Case: 21-2304     Document: 51       Page: 4    Filed: 01/03/2023
    4               SECRETARY OF DEFENSE     v. RAYTHEON COMPANY
    reorganization of the corporate structure of a business, in-
    cluding mergers and acquisitions”—are expressly unallow-
    able. See 
    id.
     §§ 31.205-22, 31.205-27. “A contractor is
    responsible for accounting for costs appropriately and for
    maintaining records, including supporting documentation,
    adequate to demonstrate that costs claimed have been in-
    curred, are allocable to the contract, and comply with ap-
    plicable cost principles . . . .” Id. § 31.201-2(d). Contractors
    who submit indirect-cost rate proposals that include ex-
    pressly unallowable costs are subject to penalties.
    
    10 U.S.C. § 2324
    (b) (2020); 
    41 U.S.C. § 4303
    (b).
    II
    The challenged costs in this case relate to Raytheon’s
    Government Relations and Corporate Development De-
    partments.
    Raytheon’s Government Relations Department, which
    in 2007 and 2008 consisted of 20 to 22 employees, is housed
    in Arlington, Virginia. During the relevant time period,
    government-relations employees engaged in various activ-
    ities including information gathering, internal discussions
    on lobbying strategies, attending meals with contractors
    and Congresspeople or Congressional staff, meeting with
    internal Raytheon customers, attending political fundrais-
    ing events, administering Raytheon’s Political Action Com-
    mittee, interfacing between Raytheon and the legislative
    branch of the U.S. government, and responding to requests
    from Congressional staffers, among other similar activi-
    ties. Raytheon’s Policy 23-3045-110, “Identifying and Re-
    porting Lobbying Activity Costs,” instructed employees to
    record all compensated time spent on lobbying activities.
    Accounting personnel then identified and withdrew costs
    associated with that time from Raytheon’s incurred-cost
    submissions.      Raytheon’s employees considered time
    worked outside of regular hours and on weekends to be part
    of their regular work duties, yet Raytheon’s Lobbying Pol-
    icy instructed them not to report “[t]ime spent on lobby
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    SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY                 5
    activity after the scheduled working day,” which was be-
    tween 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
    Government-relations employees do not report time spent
    on allowable (i.e., non-lobbying) activities.
    Raytheon’s Corporate Development Department,
    which in 2007 and 2008 consisted of roughly seven to eight
    employees, is housed in Waltham, Massachusetts. During
    the relevant period, Corporate Development worked with
    Raytheon’s business units in strategic development and
    growth opportunities. When it identified gaps in a busi-
    ness’s capabilities, Corporate Development would work
    with that business to fill the gap through, for example, in-
    ternal investment, research and development, intellectual
    property licensing, partnerships, or acquisitions. Pro-
    posals for acquisitions or divestitures were made to the Ac-
    quisition Counsel, which made the final decision to submit
    a non-binding indicative offer or to go to market with offer-
    ing materials. Per Corporate Development policy, “[u]nal-
    lowable acquisition costs commence with the submission of
    an indicative offer,” and “[u]nallowable divestiture costs
    commence when the decision to ‘go to market’ with the of-
    fering materials is made.” These bright-line rules establish
    when Raytheon’s corporate-development employees begin
    recording their time: before the Acquisition Counsel makes
    its decision, Raytheon treats employee time as allowable
    and does not record it; after the decision, Raytheon
    switches the time to “unallowable,” and employees begin to
    record their time.
    In 2007 and 2008, Raytheon charged the government
    for roughly half of the salary costs of its Government Rela-
    tions and Corporate Development Departments.
    III
    The Defense Contract Audit Agency (“DCAA”) audited
    both Raytheon’s Government Relations Department and
    its Corporate Development Department, determined that
    Raytheon’s 2007 and 2008 incurred-cost submissions for
    Case: 21-2304    Document: 51     Page: 6   Filed: 01/03/2023
    6              SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY
    those departments included unallowable costs, including
    expressly unallowable costs, and demanded reimburse-
    ment and payment of penalties. Raytheon appealed to the
    Board, which held a hearing in May 2017. On February 1,
    2021, it ruled in Raytheon’s favor, concluding, as relevant
    here, that Raytheon’s claimed government-relations and
    corporate-development costs were allowable and appropri-
    ately charged to the government. See Appeals of Raytheon
    Co., 
    ASBCA No. 59435
    , 21-1 B.C.A. ¶ 37,796 (Feb. 1, 2021)
    (J.A. 1–115).
    With respect to government-relations costs, the Board
    concluded that the government had not met its burden of
    proving that Raytheon’s costs were unallowable lobbying
    costs. J.A. 35. The Board found that Raytheon’s personnel
    were well trained in the FAR’s lobbying reporting require-
    ments and complied with Raytheon’s policies. J.A. 36. It
    rejected the government’s contention that the time Ray-
    theon’s employees spent lobbying outside regular working
    hours should be included because, even though “lobbying
    responsibilities were a regular part of the work duties,”
    Raytheon’s time-paid accounting policies meant that its
    employees were compensated for a 40-hour work week and,
    therefore, “[t]here was no cost to Raytheon or the govern-
    ment for work outside normal business hours.” 
    Id.
     The
    Board further rejected the idea that all unsupported costs
    were unallowable. J.A. 38.
    The Board also concluded that the government had
    failed to show that the disputed corporate-development
    costs were unallowable. J.A. 50. The Board scrutinized
    Raytheon’s bright-line rules and concluded that they were
    a permissible articulation of the line between allowable
    economic- or market-planning costs under 
    48 C.F.R. § 31.205-12
     and unallowable organization costs under
    § 31.205-27. Id. Because Raytheon trained its employees
    on that policy, who then followed it, the Board concluded
    that the government had failed to show that Raytheon’s in-
    curred-cost submissions were inaccurate. J.A. 51–52.
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    SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY                  7
    The Secretary appeals. We have jurisdiction under
    
    28 U.S.C. § 1295
    (a)(10).
    DISCUSSION
    We review the Board’s legal determinations de novo
    and may set aside the Board’s findings of fact if they are
    (a) fraudulent, arbitrary, or capricious; (b) so grossly erro-
    neous as to necessarily imply bad faith; or (c) not supported
    by substantial evidence. 
    41 U.S.C. § 7107
    (b).
    The Secretary’s appeal challenges the Board’s findings
    that Raytheon’s cost-reporting policies comply with the
    FAR. 2 We address the government-relations and the cor-
    porate-development policies in turn.
    I
    The Secretary contends that the government met its
    burden of showing that Raytheon overcharged the govern-
    ment because Raytheon’s policy disregarding after-hours
    lobbying rendered the government-relations incurred-cost
    submissions meaningless. We agree.
    The Board’s conclusion that “there was no cost to [Ray-
    theon] or to the government for work outside normal busi-
    ness hours,” J.A. 20, is not supported by substantial
    evidence. Indeed, the Board’s findings support the opposite
    conclusion. It observed that “Raytheon’s lobbyists worked
    early mornings, late nights, and weekends from time to
    time on what all of the testifying witnesses considered to
    be a regular part of their work duties.” J.A. 36. And it
    2  The Secretary also makes the more-general argu-
    ment that all unsupported costs are unallowable but agrees
    that we need not reach that issue if we find, as we do, that
    Raytheon’s policies are inconsistent with the FAR. Oral
    Arg. at 31:34–32:07, No. 21-2304, https://oralargu-
    ments.cafc.uscourts.gov/default.aspx?fl=21-2304_1101202
    2.mp3.
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    8               SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY
    stated, “logically, the expectation of regular night and
    weekend work would be factored into the salary paid to the
    lobbyists.” J.A. 20 n.12. Together, these statements lead
    to the conclusion that Raytheon, by ignoring after-hours
    lobbying, must have charged the government for unallow-
    able lobbying costs. Yet the Board ignored its own factual
    findings and logic and reached the opposite conclusion. It
    did so, seemingly, based on “Raytheon’s testimony that the
    government was not charged for the night and weekend
    work,” 
    id.,
     and the finding, unsupported by any citation,
    that “[a]ccounting for labor costs as a function of time paid,
    rather than time worked, is one common industry method.”
    J.A. 20.
    Both Raytheon’s testimony and the time-paid-account-
    ing point are inconsistent with the Board’s finding that
    “night and weekend work would be factored into the salary
    paid to the lobbyists.” That finding alone reflects what a
    salary is: compensation for work performed on behalf of the
    company, regardless of when. See, e.g., Salary, Black’s Law
    Dictionary (11th ed. 2019) (“An agreed compensation for
    services”); Abshire v. Cnty. of Kern, 
    908 F.2d 483
    , 486
    (9th Cir. 1990) (“A salaried employee is compensated not
    for the amount of time spent on the job, but rather for the
    general value of services performed.”), overruled on other
    grounds by Auer v. Robbins, 
    519 U.S. 452
    , 463 (1997). Ray-
    theon’s time-paid accounting is a fiction that necessarily
    overcharges the government when it ignores time spent
    working on unallowable activities after regular business
    hours. Raytheon’s lobbyists worked on unallowable activi-
    ties after-hours, and their salaries necessarily compen-
    sated them for that time. Raytheon’s policies ignoring
    after-hours time resulted in the government reimbursing
    Raytheon for unallowable costs.
    The FAR confirms that after-hours work on unallowa-
    ble activities should be accounted for. It instructs that
    “[t]ime spent by employees outside the normal working
    hours should not be considered except when it is evident
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    SECRETARY OF DEFENSE    v. RAYTHEON COMPANY                  9
    that an employee engages so frequently in company activi-
    ties during periods outside normal working hours as to in-
    dicate that such activities are a part of the employee’s
    regular duties.” 
    48 C.F.R. § 31.201-6
    (e)(2). In other words,
    if an employee’s after-hours work is extensive enough to be
    considered part of the employee’s regular duties, as was the
    case here, see J.A. 36, that time “shall be treated as directly
    associated costs to the extent of the time spent on the pro-
    scribed activity.” 
    48 C.F.R. § 31.201-6
    (e)(2). Though both
    parties point out that this provision is not directly applica-
    ble, it is nonetheless instructive: if after-hours activities
    should be considered for directly associated costs, for con-
    sistency’s sake they should also be considered for expressly
    unallowable costs. 3
    Raytheon’s arguments to the contrary are unconvinc-
    ing. It first suggests that not paying its salaried employees
    for time worked outside of normal business hours “simply
    reflects the reality that under the Fair Labor Standards
    Act [(“FLSA”)] . . . any exempt (i.e., salaried) employee is
    not entitled to pay for the time spent on business-related
    work beyond a 40-hour work week.” Appellee’s Br. 44.
    First, that argument is based on the premise—unprovable
    here—that all of Raytheon’s government-relations employ-
    ees worked full 40-hour work weeks during recordable time
    periods and that time worked outside regular business
    hours was only additional time. But employees could have
    worked less between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday
    3    Raytheon suggests that FAR 31.201-6(e)(2) only
    applies to salary expenses that generate unallowable costs;
    because the Board found that after-hours activities did not
    generate any costs, Raytheon contends, it does not apply.
    See Appellee’s Br. 46. But that argument, again, relies on
    the fiction that Raytheon’s employees were not compen-
    sated for after-hours lobbying, an idea fundamentally at
    odds with what a salary is.
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    10             SECRETARY OF DEFENSE    v. RAYTHEON COMPANY
    through Friday, to offset time spent working earlier or later
    in the day or on weekends. 4 Second, Raytheon’s argument
    is contrary to what the FLSA says. The exemption Ray-
    theon refers to comes from 
    29 U.S.C. § 213
    , which simply
    provides that salaried employees are not subject to the
    minimum-wage or maximum-hours and overtime provi-
    sions of §§ 206 and 207, respectively. See 
    29 U.S.C. § 213
    (a)(1). That, again, reflects the reality that a salary,
    by definition, compensates an employee for everything the
    employee does on behalf of the company irrespective of the
    time spent on those services. Cf. Brock v. Claridge Hotel &
    Casino, 
    846 F.2d 180
    , 184 (3d Cir. 1988) (observing that
    “the salaried employee decides for himself how much a par-
    ticular task is worth, measured in the number of hours he
    devotes to it,” while for hourly employees “it is the em-
    ployer who decides the worth of a particular task, when he
    determines the amount to pay the employee performing
    it”). It does not mean that salaried employees are not paid
    for time worked beyond 40 hours in a week.
    Raytheon also argues that the CAS required it to dis-
    close its cost-accounting practices to the government and to
    comply with those practices. Because, Raytheon says, that
    is exactly what it did here, it would be contrary to the CAS
    to find that Raytheon violated any other regulations. But
    as Raytheon admits, its CAS disclosure statements were
    not in evidence. Appellee’s Br. 45. So substantial evidence
    does not support any contention that Raytheon disclosed
    its after-hours policy in advance, let alone that the govern-
    ment consented to the policy and agreed to reimburse costs
    pursuant to it.
    4  We can only speculate on these points because, as
    mentioned previously, Raytheon’s employees do not record
    time that its policies deem allowable; Raytheon’s timekeep-
    ing policies, therefore, make no distinction between allow-
    able work time and time not worked at all.
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    SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY               11
    Because Raytheon’s incurred-cost submissions ac-
    counted only for unallowable costs incurred during regular
    hours and ignored after-hours lobbying, they do not accu-
    rately reflect the proportion of time that Raytheon’s em-
    ployees spent on unallowable lobbying activities. The only
    evidence, in the form of employee testimony, in the record
    of after-hours time was time spent on unallowable lobbying
    activities. There was no evidence of unaccounted for allow-
    able time, meaning that—so far as can be divined from the
    record—the proportion of time Raytheon’s lobbyists spent
    lobbying was necessarily higher than what Raytheon re-
    ported. We therefore conclude that the Board erred in find-
    ing that the government failed to meet its burden of
    showing that Raytheon charged it for unallowable costs.
    We reverse that finding and remand for the Board to deter-
    mine the amount of unallowable lobbying costs improperly
    charged to the government. We recognize that the lack of
    timekeeping records makes that a difficult task. That un-
    fortunate consequence, however, is attributable to Ray-
    theon’s policies. Raytheon, not the government, should
    bear the costs associated with Raytheon’s policies.
    II
    The Secretary next contends that Raytheon’s bright-
    line corporate-development policies are inconsistent with
    the FAR and resulted in Raytheon charging the govern-
    ment for expressly unallowable costs. We agree.
    The FAR expressly disallows costs associated with
    “planning . . . mergers and acquisitions.”        
    48 C.F.R. § 31.205-27
    (a)(1). By only reporting time after the submis-
    sion of an indicative offer or the decision to go to market
    with offering materials—the bright-line rules—Raytheon’s
    corporate policies are plainly inconsistent with the regula-
    tion. As a matter of both logic and common sense, a deci-
    sion on submitting an offer or to go to market cannot be
    made unless at least some planning for that offer or the
    offering materials has occurred. The clearest illustration
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    12              SECRETARY OF DEFENSE    v. RAYTHEON COMPANY
    of that point is: acquire (or divest of) what? Even identify-
    ing the subject of the decision involves preliminarily plan-
    ning the acquisition or divestiture and is, per the
    regulation, unallowable. And, naturally, more preliminary
    planning must be involved before the Acquisition Counsel
    can capably decide what to do. So the language of the pol-
    icies alone reflects the fact that Raytheon fails to account
    for expressly unallowable costs in its indirect-cost rate pro-
    posals. Confirming that understanding, ample evidence
    before the Board established that at least some of Ray-
    theon’s “allowable” pre-decision salary costs related to
    planning mergers, acquisitions, or divestitures. See, e.g.,
    J.A. 4953 (slide illustrating divestiture process which
    shows tasks like “identify opportunity,” “preliminary valu-
    ation,” “team selection and launch,” all happening before
    go-to-market decision); J.A. 20547 (employee testifying
    that he performed “acquisition planning” before offer sub-
    mission); J.A. 20883–84 (employee testifying to research
    and analysis before offer submission). The Board therefore
    erred as a matter of law in concluding that Raytheon’s pol-
    icies are consistent with the FAR. The government met its
    burden of showing that Raytheon charged it for expressly
    unallowable costs.
    Raytheon tries to justify its policies by suggesting that
    the distinction between unallowable organizational-plan-
    ning costs and allowable economic- or market-planning
    costs is “unclear” and not “a defined line.” See Appellee’s
    Br. 47. The solution, Raytheon contends, is that the FAR
    creates a distinction between general planning and plan-
    ning for a specific acquisition or divestiture. 
    Id. at 49
    . It
    then argues that its bright-line policies reflect that distinc-
    tion. There are at least two problems with Raytheon’s po-
    sition. First, if Raytheon’s point about the lack of a defined
    line is intended to suggest that there might be overlap be-
    tween these categories of costs, that’s wrong: FAR 31.205-
    12 says that “[e]conomic planning costs do not include or-
    ganization or reorganization costs covered by 31.205-27.”
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    SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY                13
    Even if it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether
    a specific activity generates allowable economic-planning
    costs or unallowable corporate-reorganization costs, that
    doesn’t justify Raytheon’s decision to establish policies
    drawing bright lines that start the clock on unallowable
    time at points obviously later than the FAR permits.
    Second, even if we accept that FAR § 31.205-27(a)(1)
    only disallows planning for a specifically identified acqui-
    sition or divestiture—a proposition that the generality of
    the regulation does not support—evidence before the Board
    shows that, before involving the Acquisition Counsel, Ray-
    theon employees identified specific acquisition targets and
    worked towards possible acquisitions, which are activities
    that plainly involve “planning . . . mergers.” See, e.g.,
    J.A. 4849 (employee Goals & Accomplishments document
    for 2007 identifying specific acquisition targets and ex-
    plaining work performed relating to each). But because
    Raytheon never submitted indicative offers to the identi-
    fied targets, all of those salary costs were deemed allowable
    under Raytheon’s corporate policies. J.A. 22349 (employee
    testifying that all time spent pursuing acquisition targets
    was included in charges to the government). So the evi-
    dence belies Raytheon’s justifications and confirms the
    common-sense view that Raytheon’s policies are facially in-
    consistent with the FAR.
    Amici suggest that siding with the Secretary on this is-
    sue is tantamount to finding that corporate policies and
    trainings purporting to explain the FAR to employees are
    impermissible. See, e.g., Brief for Amicus Curiae National
    Association of Manufacturers and Aerospace Industries
    Association, 12–13. But that is not what we understand
    the Secretary’s position to be, and that is not what we have
    concluded. We are not saying that all policies that attempt
    to draw lines interpreting FAR provisions are improper; we
    have simply concluded that these policies drawing those
    lines are inconsistent with the FAR. We see nothing
    wrong, as a general matter, with policies that interpret and
    Case: 21-2304     Document: 51     Page: 14   Filed: 01/03/2023
    14              SECRETARY OF DEFENSE   v. RAYTHEON COMPANY
    explain the FAR; each policy should be evaluated on its
    own merits, as Raytheon’s have been here.
    Because the Board erred as a matter of law in conclud-
    ing that Raytheon’s corporate-development policies were
    consistent with the FAR, its factual determination that the
    government was not charged for unallowable costs because
    Raytheon’s employees complied with those policies is also
    legally incorrect. We therefore reverse the Board’s conclu-
    sion and remand for the Board to determine the amount of
    unallowable costs improperly charged to the government.
    We again recognize that Raytheon’s policies make this a
    difficult task, but we reiterate our view that Raytheon
    should shoulder the burden its policies created.
    CONCLUSION
    We have considered Raytheon’s remaining arguments
    and find them unpersuasive. For the reasons set forth
    above, we conclude that the Board erred in finding both
    that Raytheon’s policies comply with the FAR and that the
    government failed to show by a preponderance of the evi-
    dence that Raytheon overcharged it. We therefore reverse
    the Board’s judgment and remand for a determination of
    costs Raytheon must repay and, if necessary and appropri-
    ate, an assessment of penalties.
    REVERSED AND REMANDED
    COSTS
    No costs.
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 21-2304

Filed Date: 1/3/2023

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 1/3/2023