Nearly halfway into FY’24 events are unfolding that can have a major impact on a company’s federal business. Here are three things to watch for this week.
1. Congress has only two legislative days to implement the first FY’24 appropriations bills. Surprise, the Congressional week is not the same as everyone else’s. While there are five days before March 1st, only two of those days are when the House of Representatives will be in session. This leaves little room for error as Congress tries to finalize spending bills for the VA, FDA, Agriculture and some additional civilian agency operations. If they can’t finalize the measures they will either have to pass a short-term CR or face the prospect of the impacted agencies shutting down.
2. Government contracting continues anyway: The General Services Administration continues to progress on its Alliant3, Polaris, and ASCEND contracts even as it evaluates offers on OASIS+. NASA continues to move ahead on SEWP VI and NIH is planning its CIO-CS product-based IT contract for later this year. Agencies extend existing projects and use non-appropriated funds to start new ones regularly. The government is open and conducts at least some business.
3. Contractors and their customers will be able to see more clearly soon: One thing that is nearly certain is that companies and their federal customers will know what they’re looking at for the rest of the fiscal year very soon. Either there will be appropriations for all or some, there will be temporary shutdowns for civilian agencies, or civilian agencies will see months-long CR’s, with carveouts for specific projects. Whether you will like what you see is one thing, but at least you will know and be able to proceed accordingly.
Incredibly, GSA is asking industry for input for a follow-on EIS telecommunications contract eight years before the current vehicle is scheduled to expire. Called the “Next Generation Network Infrastructure (NGNI)” vehicle, the agency is seeking input from industry on 38 different questions that will be used to populate a nearly 50-item matrix that GSA will use to start work on the EIS follow-on. Industry may have to do a bit of crystal ball gazing to determine what telecommunications solutions will actually look like in 8-10 years and keep in mind that the actual implementation of any NGNI vehicle could even come somewhat later given protests, administrative delays, and customer agency foot-dragging. They will also have to consider what the federal government market will look like, especially given the decentralized nature of hybrid Read more
Among the many famous lines from the Godfather movies is “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” While contractors may not consider anyone to be their outright enemy, they do need to be aware of what can be used against them in the event an employee, competitor, or other interested party files a whistleblower suit. Recent research conducted by Allen Federal shows that plaintiff attorneys provide easy to follow information and suggestions of potential problem areas right on their website home pages. One firm even has an article with the phrase “GSA Pricing Fraud Basics” to assist anyone who’s not sure whether their targeted company has incurred potential violations. The temptation starts by offering a free consultation. Would-be whistleblowers don’t have to put any skin in the game to get started. Read more
“I’m very optimistic that we can get them done by March 1,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) February 13th of the 12 bills needed to fund all federal agencies through the end of the 2024 fiscal year. That’s potentially good news for contractors and their government customers, but stumbling blocks, including election year politics, remain. The largest stumbling block right now appears to be a series of policy riders that House Republicans want to add to specific spending measures. While appropriations bills aren’t supposed to have policy riders, they almost always do and, inevitably, they are meant to execute the policy priorities of the majority party. It is very possible that some members would vote “no” on bills that don’t Read more
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) launched its new “Federal Program Inventory” dashboard this week, with information on almost 2,400 federal domestic spending programs. OMB intends the dashboard to bring greater transparency to how the government spends its money and plans to expand the dashboard to encompass all federal spending. Data collection is a hot topic in both industry and government. Everyone wants unique, one-of-a-kind Read more