In the United States, the Congress has authorised bid protests in recognition of their role in providing redress to disappointed bidders and in ensuring the integrity of the federal procurement process. By statute, three forums have authority to hear bid protests against the federal government: the procuring agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the Court of Federal Claims. The article discusses the issues that may be protested with GAO (i.e. possible grounds of protest), who and when may file a protest, who else can be a party in these protests, when GAO must render its final decision on the protest, and other potential conditions in such cases. The article also presents possible resolutions of these protests and legal effects of GAO’s nonbinding recommendations. At the end of the article, the author gives some bid protest statistics, as well as core advantages and disadvantages of this procedure.