New reader M. Markle of California writes in “Our family-owned firm does business with California and other states. How do we know when a sale is a GSA Schedule Cooperative Purchasing sale versus a state government transaction?” We get this question more frequently than you would think, M. The situation can be confusing because state government customers often request that GSA contractors quote their Schedule price when bidding on state Read more
The Continuing Resolution (CR) being crafted to keep the government open, most likely until mid-December, will have all sorts of extra items added to it, making it a classic “Christmas Tree” measure with multiple lights and ornaments. Contractors may want to track matters such as additional spending for Ukraine, disaster relief assistance, and domestic energy permit expediting as there may be future business opportunities with any or all of these. The Read more
Federal agencies are on track to obligate as much money via contracts, or more, in FY’22 as they did in FY’21. With about three weeks remaining in the fiscal year the top five civilian agencies – the Departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security – are either at or near contract spending totals for all of last year. The Department of Veterans Affairs has the largest gap, approximately $9 billion, according to Read more
Being successful at government business takes a special set of skills (to borrow a phrase). The ability to navigate business relationships, understand budget and acquisition cycles, and discern contract rules are all key components of being a good federal business executive. Government affairs requires its own set of skills, too, and while the two can overlap, no contractor should think that one is the same as the other. Indeed, without a good Read more
The House and Senate return from summer recess this week and have a small window in which to do a lot of work prior to the end of the 2022 Fiscal Year. Here’s what’s likely to happen and what’s not: Read more