Procurement remedies are a stack of short fuses: miss one and the best-documented defect in the file becomes a war story. This page is the calendar, kept honest.
| Event | Window | The trap |
|---|---|---|
| Solicitation defect (GAO) | Before proposal deadline | Waiting to see if you win waives the ground — the deadline is the objection's own funeral. |
| Post-award protest (GAO) | 10 days from known/ should-have-known | 'Known' can start at the award notice, not the debrief — count from the earliest arguable date. |
| Required-debriefing procurements | 5 days after debrief for the CICA stay | Enhanced-debriefing question rounds can move the mark — get the close-of-debrief date in writing. |
| GAO decision | 100 calendar days | None — it's the system's one promise kept. |
| COFC protest | No fixed statute of days | Waiver doctrine for known solicitation defects, laches for sitters — 'no deadline' is not 'no clock.' |
| Debriefing request | Days from award notice per FAR part | Late request forfeits both the debrief and the stay window it anchors. |
The operational rule: the day any award news arrives, every one of these dates goes on a calendar with counsel copied. The protest decision can be made calmly inside preserved windows — or frantically after them, which is to say not at all.
GAO's days are calendar days with end-date rules for closures — never hand-count a deadline; verify each one against the current rule text the day the clock starts.
No agency kindness moves GAO's windows — they are regulatory. What agencies CAN move is the debriefing schedule, which anchors everything downstream.
File timely — supplemental grounds can follow within their own windows as the record develops. Perfect-but-late is the only losing draft.