While government contractors employee hundreds of thousands of people and operate in every state, the importance of maintaining those jobs and the economic impact they make is not a priority for many in Congress. That’s true whether the business is large or small, despite Congressional small business rhetoric to the contrary.  Neither is the efficient running of government, even though it has long been shown that a government that can plan ahead and operate with a degree of certainty works better and costs less.  This reality came to the forefront last week when Fitch Ratings downgraded US debt over concerns that constant bickering over spending and the looming threat of another shutdown would make US debt a less reliable investment.  As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, however, this action is likely to have little to no impact on actual spending decisions but will almost certainly make it more difficult to get final FY’24 appropriations, or perhaps even a CR, passed this fall.  Although Congress does mainly focus on trimming discretionary spending which, unfortunately, accounts for well under half of all federal spending, the impact of such cuts on local jobs tied to government work is rarely considered.  The takeaway for contractors is that they must ensure that their elected officials clearly understand the impact of shutdowns and CR’s on the local, not national, economy.  As former House Speaker Tip O’Neill once said, “All politics is local.”  Contractors can’t expect their elected officials to know just how much they contribute to local economies unless they tell them.  Now is an excellent time for such discussions as most officials are back in their home states or districts in between family vacation time.  Failing to tell local employment and economic stories threatens to relegate government contractors to the sidelines of the larger debate on where and how much money the government spends.  You’re not a factor if nobody knows you’re there.  Make sure they do.