You have undoubtedly heard the stories, a contractor with a flawless record going back years gets one bad past performance record, maybe due to themselves or a subcontractor, and now they are blackballed. While many in the government believe this is all exaggeration, contractors know that this situation can occur and that even a “satisfactory” rating can be the difference between winning and losing the next big contract. For this reason, it is critical that contractors understand when, among other things, they can and cannot use subcontractor or JV member past performance, when and how to protest unduly restrictive limitations on such use, and how to effectively challenge bad past performance ratings.