Northrop Grumman Sys. Corp. v. Nat'l Aeronautics & Space Admin.
Northrop Grumman Sys. Corp. v. Nat'l Aeronautics & Space Admin.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation ("Northrop Grumman") brings this reverse-Freedom of Information Act suit against Defendant National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA"). Northrop Grumman challenges as arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law, see
I. BACKGROUND
A. Contract NAS5-02200 & Clause B.7
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems ("NGAS"), the largest of Northrop Grumman's business sectors, "designs and manufactures a ... range of military aircraft, autonomous systems, and space technologies." Dkt. 28-1 at 9-10 n.1. In October of 2002, NGAS was awarded NASA Contract NAS5-02200, see Dkt. 18-1 at 4, to design and manufacture the James Webb Space Telescope ("JWST"), a "$9[ ] [billion] Program of international significance," Dkt. 18-7 at 97 n.6.
Northrop Grumman's proposed wrap rates are identified in Table 1 to Clause B.7 of the JWST contract, and Table 2 to Clause B.7 provides examples of how the "negative fee incentive" would be calculated if Northrop Grumman's actual wrap rate deviated by the agreed-upon amount from its proposed wrap rate. See Dkt. 18-1 at 17-18. As NASA explained in its Final Decision, Clause B.7 was included "to reduce potential indirect rate creep" over the course of a long-term contract. Dkt. 18-7 at 97.
B. Administrative Action
On February 10, 2017, NASA received a FOIA request from FOIA Group, Inc., a commercial service that submits FOIA requests on behalf of third parties. See Dkt. 18-1 at 2. The request sought a copy of the JWST contract with attachments, any modifications from 2004 to 2009, the "source selection statement," and the "[c]omplete[d]" Request for Proposals.
By letter dated March 24, 2017, NASA notified Northrop Grumman that it had received the FOIA request and requested that Northrop Grumman "provide [NASA] with a written response stating any objections Northrop Grumman ... may have to the release of the requested documents." Dkt. 18-3 at 352. The letter further requested that Northrop Grumman "highlight" its objections on copies of the requested documents, which NASA provided along with its letter, and that it "provide the legal basis for those objections."
After receiving a three-day extension of time, Northrop Grumman submitted its letter response on April 7, 2017, along with over a thousand pages of attachments. See Dkt. 18-3 at 360-491, Dkt. 18-4, Dkt. 18-5, Dkt. 18-6, Dkt. 18-7 at 1-76. In its letter, Northrop Grumman objected to the disclosure of a number of portions of the contract, most of which are not at issue in this case. See Dkt. 18-3 at 361-70. As relevant here, Northrop Grumman objected to the disclosure of the two tables found on pages 14 and 15 of Clause B.7 of the contract. Dkt. 18-3 at 370. Specifically, it objected "to the release of its [proposed] wrap rates for 2002 through 2009 and the calculation of the negative fee incentive," which appear in those tables, on the ground that this information is "confidential" and thus exempt from disclosure under Exemption (b)(4) of FOIA.
Four months later, on August 30, 2017, NASA informed Northrop Grumman that, "[f]ollowing detailed discussions with financial and procurement personnel familiar with this clause and the history of the Contract," NASA had decided to disclose the company's proposed wrap rates and negative fee incentive calculation. Dkt. 18-7 at 97. NASA gave six main reasons for that conclusion: First , it concluded that Northrop Grumman would not suffer competitive harm because the tables included in Clause B.7 merely disclosed the company's projected wrap rates, not its actual wrap rates.
For all of these reasons, NASA concluded that Northrop Grumman "ha[d] not demonstrated ... that release of this information is likely to cause substantial competitive harm to" the company and that, accordingly, the "information is releasable under FOIA."
Northrop Grumman wrote to NASA two weeks later-the day before it filed this suit-expressing alarm about "the prospective release of information related to" the JWST contract "that could harm the [c]ompany's ability to compete fairly for future contracts, not only with NASA but with many other government agencies." Dkt. 20-3 at 2. It, accordingly, asked that NASA reconsider its "incorrect analysis," which was based on "erroneous factual assumptions," "with respect to a single area of information"-the company's proposed "wrap rates." Dkt. 20-3 at 2. Northrop Grumman argued that [Redacted] Id. at 3, 8, 10-11. Northrop Grumman further explained that it and its competitors go to great lengths to divine what others are likely to bid on competitive contracts and *116that knowing or accurately predicting what proposed wrap rates others will use would provide a competitive advantage. Id. at 7-8. Finally, Northrop Grumman argued that disclosure of the proposed wrap rates it included in Clause B.7 would permit its competitors to infer what the company's actual wrap rates were and thus to gain additional insight into its confidential pricing information. Id. at 6. Because it had already issued a "final" decision, NASA did not respond to Northrop Grumman's letter.
C. Procedural History
On September 15, 2017, Northrop Grumman filed this reverse-FOIA action, Dkt. 1, and, that same day, moved for a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction, Dkt. 4. In response, NASA agreed to delay releasing the disputed records while this litigation is pending, and, with the agreement of the parties, Dkt. 25; Dkt. 26, the Court denied the motion for a preliminary injunction as moot, see Minute Order (Nov. 21, 2017). Northrop Grumman then filed a motion for leave to supplement the administrative record or, in the alternative, to introduce extra-record evidence, requesting that the Court consider, among other things, its September 14, 2017 request that NASA reconsider its decision. Dkt. 20. After hearing argument on the motion, the Court denied Northrop Grumman's motion to supplement the administrative record, denied the company's motion to introduce extra-record evidence as premature, but granted it leave to reassert the latter request in the course of briefing the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment. Dkt. 30 at 14. The parties' cross-motions for summary judgment, including Northrop Grumman's request to introduce extra-record evidence, are now before the Court. Dkt. 27; Dkt. 28.
II. ANALYSIS
FOIA is a disclosure statute, which mandates that federal agencies release "agency records" upon request unless the records at issue are covered by one of nine "exclusive" exemptions. Milner v. Dep't of Navy ,
At this point in the analysis, FOIA and the Trade Secrets Act-at least for relevant Purposes-converge. Under Exemption *1174 of FOIA, an agency is not required to disclose "trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential,"
A. Governing Standard
The standard for determining whether information is "privileged or confidential" varies based on whether the information was submitted to the government voluntarily or involuntarily. If information is disclosed to the government voluntarily, a reverse-FOIA plaintiff need only show that the information is of the type that the plaintiff "would customarily not ... release[ ] to the public." McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. NASA ,
To demonstrate that disclosure would "cause substantial harm to [its] competitive position," a reverse-FOIA plaintiff is not required to "demonstrate 'with certainty' " that "release of the contested information could cause [it to suffer such] harm."
*118McDonnell Douglas II ,
B. Application of the Standard
Except in "unusual circumstances," Am. Wildlands v. Kempthorne ,
NASA's first two reasons for concluding that disclosure of Northrop Grumman's proposed wrap rates would not cause the company substantial competitive harm-that Northrop Grumman's "actual rates" are not being disclosed, and that the actual rates cannot be derived from the release of the proposed wrap rates-are flawed for two reasons. First, although the wrap rates contained in Clause B.7 are, indeed, proposed rates and are not based on the actual indirect costs Northrop Grumman incurred in performing under the JWST contract, they are by no means unconnected to Northrop Grumman's actual rates. As explained above, the JWST contract was a cost-plus contract and, to control indirect costs, it included a "negative fee incentive" for the first eight years of the period of performance. Dkt. 18-1 at 16; see also Dkt. 18-7 at 97. At the end of *119each calendar year, Northrop Grumman was required to apply its proposed wrap rate to its actual labor costs to determine its yearly costs based on the proposed wrap rate. Dkt. 18-1 at 17. For each of the first eight years of the contract, Northrop Grumman would then add this amount to the amount calculated in the prior performance years using the same methodology, and would add three percent to the cumulative "proposed wrap rate" cost to arrive at a "cumulative cost cap." Id. at 17-18. Later, Northrop Grumman would apply its actual wrap rate-which was based on its actual indirect costs-to its labor costs to arrive at its actual yearly costs, which it then added to the amount calculated for prior performance years using that same methodology. Id. Finally, for each performance year, the company was required to subtract its cumulative "actual wrap rate" cost from its cumulative, adjusted "proposed wrap rate" cost to calculate the "negative fee incentive." Id. at 18. Accordingly, to avoid the "negative fee incentive," Northrop Grumman needed to ensure that its proposed wrap rate was predictive of its actual wrap rate. And, as Northrop Grumman explained in its April 7, 2017 submission to NASA, "[b]ecause the wrap rates" included in Clause B.7 therefore "reveal [the company's] cost of doing business, they can be used by competitors to gain an unfair competitive advantage when bidding on competitive contracts against [Northrop Grumman]." Dkt. 18-3 at 370 (explaining that "competitors would know" Northrop Grumman's "indirect expenses applicable to each dollar of labor").
Second, even if competitors are not able to "extrapolate" Northrop Grumman's "actual rates," Dkt. 18-1 at 97, the proposed wrap rates are themselves "proprietary information" that Northrop Grumman treats as "closely held" and does "not share[ ] with competitors," Dkt. 18-3 at 370. Because the actual rates are unknown at the time of contracting, the proposed wrap rates are one means by which the government evaluates the bidder's proposed costs. As Northrop Grumman explained in its April 7, 2017 submission, moreover, [Redacted] thus making them a potentially valuable tool for a competitor who is seeking to "calculate [Northrop Grumman's] future bids and its pricing structure from the withheld information," thereby "allow[ing] competitors to estimate, and undercut, its bids." Gulf & W. Indus. ,
Accordingly, because disclosure of Northrop Grumman's proposed wrap rates would permit competitors to undercut Northrop Grumman's bids, NASA's first two rationales for releasing them do not withstand APA scrutiny.
NASA's third rationale-that [Redacted] Dkt. 18-7 at 97-is equally flawed. The significance of the proposed wrap rates is the role they play at the time of contracting. To be sure, a competitor might be interested to know whether Northrop Grumman's actual wrap rates triggered the negative fee incentive. That information, for example, might let Northrop Grumman's competitors infer how Northrop Grumman might change its proposed wrap rates in future bids. But the absence of that additional information does not deprive the proposed wrap rates that Northrop Grumman used-[Redacted] Dkt. 18-3 at 370-of trade secret status. [Redacted]
Fourth, NASA reasoned that because the JWST project was a unique, "once in a generation" contract, it was "unlikely" that any Northrop Grumman competitor could use the JWST proposed wrap rate "to gain a definitive advantage needed to secure a contract for a related space-based infrared observatory, or other Federal procurement *120of this magnitude." Dkt. 18-7 at 97 n.6. That conclusion, however, failed to consider Northrop Grumman's submission stating that release of the JWST proposed wrap rates would put Northrop Grumman at a competitive disadvantage in bidding on a range of specific aerospace solicitations. See Dkt. 18-3 at 371-72. Northrop Grumman supported that assertion with numerous specific examples, including [Redacted] Id. at 371. The company further explained that, "given the multiple programs and opportunities that are on the horizon," "[t]he threat of competitive harm is not illusory but rather distinct and real." Id. at 372. Because NASA failed to consider these likely competitive harms, its rationale-once again-fails APA scrutiny.
Fifth, NASA posited that the release of the proposed wrap rates would not cause competitive harm because competition for future contracts "is likely to be based on a variety of factors including cost, past performance, and technical capability," and the wrap rate information "is only one aspect of a myriad number of fluctuating variables relevant to a future contract award." Dkt. 18-7 at 97-98 n.6. This argument is similar to the reasoning the D.C. Circuit rejected in McDonnell Douglas I , where the defendant-NASA in that case as well-argued that "underbidding due to the disclosure would not occur because price is only one of the many factors used by the government in awarding contracts."
Because price is the only objective, or at least readily quantified, criterion among the six criteria for awarding government contracts, submitting the lowest price is surely the most straightforward way for a competitor to show its bid is superior. Indeed, price is by statute the only factor that "must be considered in the evaluation of a proposal."
Sixth, NASA reasoned that the proposed wrap rates would not cause competitive harm because they "were inserted at Contract formation in 2002, and never updated" and were therefore not "current." Dkt. 18-7 at 97. As NASA further explains in its brief, "[b]ecause Clause B.7 was never updated or changed, the last piece of information at issue is data projected in 2002 for the year 2009," Dkt. 27 at 26, and, because Northrop Grumman's proposed wrap rates for the years [Redacted] "competitors would have to make broad assumptions that [Redacted] would continue in the same manner nearly 10 years later,"
According to NASA, the Boeing case supports its conclusion that the "age and unpredictability" of the JWST proposed wrap rates diminishes any risk of competitive harm to Northrop Grumman. Dkt. 27 at 9-11; Dkt. 18-7 at 98. But the "wrap rates" at issue in the Boeing case differ from those at issue here in a dispositive respect: the JWST wrap rates were simply a measure of indirect costs, while the wrap rates at issue in Boeing included both indirect costs and direct costs such as "labor rates,"
Because the reasons NASA gave for concluding that release of the information found in Clause B.7 was not likely to cause Northrop Grumman substantial competitive harm do not withstand scrutiny, its decision must be set aside as arbitrary, capricious and not in accordance with the law. See
CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, the Court will deny NASA's motion for summary judgment, Dkt. 27, and will grant Northrop Grumman's cross-motion for summary judgment, Dkt. 28.
A separate order will issue.
The contract was initially awarded to TRW, Inc., Dkt. 18-1 at 4, which was subsequently acquired by Northrop Grumman.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION v. NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published