Budget Control Act | The Contracting Education Academy

January 11, 2013 By AMK

Threatened delay in defense budget adds to planners’ uncertainty

Pentagon spokesmen’s recent allusions to possible delays in the fiscal 2014 defense budget have added to the fog of uncertainty surrounding planning for the government’s largest spending category, according to analysts.

Defense Department Comptroller Robert Hale on Monday told a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution that “some delay is almost inevitable” given the changes in deadlines and spending cuts under a possible sequestration made through the American Taxpayer Relief Act that Congress passed New Year’s Day. “We are transmitting to the Office of Management and Budget right now,” Hale said. Any delay in the traditional early February budget release “will be OMB’s call.”

On Jan. 3 Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters, “I think we could submit a budget in February. I’m not ruling that out. But we need to define what the timeline is in the coming days and weeks.” He added that “this is what happens when you don’t have a rational debate on the federal budget.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/defense/2013/01/threatened-delay-defense-budget-adds-planners-uncertainty/60521/?oref=management_agenda_nl.

January 4, 2013 By AMK

Agencies, contractors chafe at cliff deal’s uncertainty on sequestration

The freshly passed legislation designed to avoid the fiscal cliff kicked the proverbial can of sequestration down the road by two months, worsening already existing uncertainty about agency spending levels, according to contractors and budget analysts.

By postponing but not replacing the across-the-board automatic cuts that the 2011 Budget Control Act slated to go into effect on Wednesday, lawmakers who crafted the primarily tax-oriented bill that cleared the House late Tuesday night ratcheted up the pressure on agency managers and private providers of services to government.

“What the press tended not to explain is that the size of the sequestration was reduced by 22 percent or two-ninths,” said Richard Kogan, a senior fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. “So instead of squeezing a sequestration of size X into nine months, you would be squeezing a sequestration that is two-ninths smaller into seven months.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/management/2013/01/agencies-contractors-chafe-cliff-deals-uncertainty-sequestration/60434/?oref=govexec_today_nl

October 29, 2012 By AMK

Many agencies already reacting to sequestration threat, panelists say

Though the White House has directed federal agencies not to spend time planning for automatic spending cuts pending a post-election budget deal, many already are pondering or have taken austerity steps that affect contractors, private procurement specialists say.

“The Office of Management and Budget says it’s business as usual, which is a nice thing to say, but is impossible to do,” Beth Ferrell, a partner at the law and policy firm McKenna Long and Aldridge, said at a Monday panel staged by the nonprofit industry group TechAmerica.

Noting that many agencies already have changed their acquisition strategies, she advised federal contractors to expect agencies to plan for “sacrifices” that include furloughs, salary cuts and not replacing retirees. Agencies also might narrow the field of future contracts to those that are mission-critical, which is “in the eye of the beholder,” Ferrell said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/management/2012/10/many-agencies-already-reacting-sequestration-threat-panelists-say/58927/?oref=management_agenda_nl

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