Although negative news rules most of the headlines in both the national and government contract media, there are good things that happen everyday in government commercial acquisition. The 30-year-old Fed100 awards, now sponsored by NextGov, highlight leaders from government and industry who have achieved success in moving federal IT, and often federal IT acquisition, forward. The publication of this year’s list of awardees showcases this and provides all who work in this industry with an opportunity to stop and say “thank you” to those who have worked to make government work better. Significantly, five of the Fed100 come from the General Services Administration, with four from the Federal Acquisition Service Read more
Each of the separate 12 Congressional FY’24 appropriations bills now has a top-line spending number, enabling subcommittees to allocate resources for specific programs. This move was necessary for final work to be done on setting FY’24 appropriations levels and is good news for those hoping that Congress will meet, or at least come close, to its early March deadline for passing all spending measures. First up are those agencies that need bills passed by March 1st. Of those, Commerce, State, and Justice are expected to see spending cuts from FY’23 levels, while Military Construction and Energy and Water appropriators have said that they can “live Read more
A new proposed rule supported by the White House will require contractors to post salary ranges “for any position to perform work on or in connection with the contract…”. In addition, contractors and subcontractors will be prohibited from seeking and considering information about job applicants’ non-federal compensation history when making employment decisions about personnel working on or in connection with a government contract. The proposed rule was highlighted in a White House press release issued January 29th. The key phrase for many contractors will be what “in connection with a contract” means. While companies that sell Read more
The cloud efforts of over 20 agencies received a grade of D or F in the latest FITARA report card issued by Rep. Gerry Connelly (D-VA) last week. Many, like GSA, are usually considered to be among those making substantial cloud advancements. While there is usually a need for improvement in any report card (we are no exception), it’s fair to ask how cloud progress is being measured when those with good programs receive poor grades. Contractors may want to engage their customers in discussions on this topic, especially when, as Bloomberg Government points out, total federal agency spending on cloud solutions reached $16 billion in FY’23, a 163% surge over the past five years. Other agency shortcomings in the FITARA report card include failures to transition telecommunications solutions to GSA’s nowhere near new EIS contract. Fourteen agencies received an F for their efforts on that front, even though GSA continues to insist that transitioning is mandatory and that they will, someday, cut off older legacy contracts. HHS, State, and Transportation received the lowest overall grade of D on the report card. These three agencies may present good opportunities for IT contractors as they need to upgrade not only cloud capabilities, but cybersecurity and key IT infrastructure. The Department of Defense, meanwhile, improved from a grade of C to B and was the only agency to get a higher grade for its cloud efforts. The US Agency of International Development (USAID) was the only agency to receive an overall grade of A. IT contractors should take the time to read through the latest FITARA results and plan to focus their messages to agencies accordingly. Agency CIO’s and other senior leaders do pay attention the progress they make on meeting FITARA benchmarks. The information is there. Make sure you make good use of it.
Senate appropriations leaders are already expressing concern over the ability of Congress to pass FY’24 spending bills by the new early March deadline. “I’m very concerned that we don’t have the allocations for the subcommittees so that we can begin work on the conference,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) when speaking to reporters early this week. One issue is that there is yet no agreement on spending caps for each of the 12 separate bills. The current approach used by appropriators to agree to top-line caps and then back everything into each separate measure. Another issue is the debate over security at the southern border. It is tied to foreign aid appropriations and is therefore linked to the overall process of reaching an agreement on final appropriations for all agencies. House Republicans have made clear that they expect their language to be adopted, something with which the Senate is not likely to agree. Also, while March may seem like it’s a long way off, the House is out of session this week and both chambers will take an extended 10-day break for the President’s Day holiday in February. That doesn’t leave very many days to work together to iron out differences and separately vote on each measure. Although few are saying it, the situation could lead to a year-long CR for most civilian operations, with potential carve-outs for programs deemed to be of particular importance. Not passing a DOD appropriations bill would simply be a total failure of duty given today’s geopolitical reality. As such, DOD would likely finally get an appropriations bill at some point this year. Contractors and their customers must continue to wait and see how these events unfold. Congress will again go right down to the wire. Stay tuned.