DoD | The Contracting Education Academy

March 29, 2020 By cs

Agencies have spent more than $300 million in response to the COVID-19 outbreak

Federal buyers spent more than $4.8 million on hand sanitizer alone in the last two months.

**According to the CDC, a novel coronavirus, formally named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is identified as the cause of a worldwide outbreak of respiratory illness.**

Federal agencies have spent upward of $300 million over the last two months in response to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between February 1 and March 22, agencies reported spending more than $297.8 million on telework products and services—such as virtual meeting rooms, collaboration tools and virtual private networks—and health products like hand sanitizer and ventilators, according to data maintained in the Federal Procurement Data System.

An analysis by The Pulse of GovCon, a federal contracting market intelligence firm, looked at all federal spending data tagged with the National Interest Action code “COVID-19-2020” and variations, such as “covid-19,” “covid19,” and “coronavirus.” The analysis shows agencies spent $6.5 million on ventilators, nearly $4.8 million on hand sanitizer, $3.7 million on gloves and $3.2 million on disinfectants. The balance was spent on personnel support services and IT products and support for teleworking.

But Pulse analysts stressed that the data is likely incomplete at this time.

“Many contracting offices supporting COVID-19, particularly those relocated to the disaster recovery area, do not have access to their normal contract writing systems and thus have not been able to populate FPDS-NG contemporaneously with the contract awards they have made,” they said in a summary report. “Others have not had time to enter data due to the tempo of operations.”

Analysts also noted these figures do not include Defense Department spending, as that data is kept on a 90-day delay for the sake of national security.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/03/agencies-have-spent-more-300m-response-covid-19-outbreak/164097/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized. Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

March 28, 2020 By cs

Coronavirus will not delay Pentagon’s contractor cybersecurity program, official says

The Defense Department officially entered into an agreement with the nonprofit corporation that will serve as the accreditation body for its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, the chief information security officer for the department’s acquisition office confirmed.

“Yesterday the CMMC accreditation body made a public post that we have executed the [memorandum of understanding],” said Katie Arrington, who is spearheading the program and participated in a webcast on the issue Thursday.

A resolute Arrington sought to quash any idea that the government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic would delay the Defense Department’s plan to validate contractors’ cybersecurity claims using independent third-party auditors.

“We, all of us that are mission-essential, have been working on COVID-19, but,” she said, “although we are working diligently to ensure we are doing our best in the Department of Defense to save lives, work does continue and we are not slowing our roll at all.”

Arrington and other webinar participants noted the extensive impact the CMMC is expected to make across the federal government, its contractors and international partners.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2020/03/coronavirus-will-not-delay-pentagons-contractor-cybersecurity-program-official-says/164152/

March 24, 2020 By cs

Agencies initiate emergency acquisition authorities

The Defense Department raised its threshold for 8(a) sole source contracts to $100 million as required by the 2020 Defense authorization bill. While not related to coronavirus outbreak, the timing is important.

At least four agencies have implemented emergency acquisition authorities to make it easier to award contracts to support coronavirus relief efforts.

The General Services Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the IRS raised the micro-purchase threshold (MPT) and the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT) in the last week.

The Defense Department on March 17 raised the threshold for sole source 8(a) contracts to $100 million as required under the 2020 Defense authorization bill.

This is a huge increase, given typically the threshold for 8(a) contracts at DoD has been $22 million. Congress increased the threshold for the first time since 2015.

For the rest of the government, the 8(a) sole source threshold is $7 million for manufacturing requirements or $4 million for all other requirements.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/03/agencies-initiate-emergency-acquisition-authorities/

March 20, 2020 By cs

Industry on pins and needles as DoD and accreditation body work to finalize CMMC agreement

The Defense Department is one small step away from officially getting the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) off the starting blocks.

Ellen Lord, the undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, is ready to sign off on the memorandum of understanding with the CMMC accreditation body that would jumpstart the training of third-party assessment organizations.

Katie Arrington, the chief information security officer for acquisition at DoD, said the MOU is through the clearance process and is just awaiting Lord’s signature.

Arrington, speaking at the Washington Technology CMMC event in McLean, Virginia on March 13, said once the MOU is signed, the six-month push to begin putting CMMC standards in procurements officially will begin.

“The accreditation board, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University and DoD are going through simulations of training, working through the kinks,” she said. “The first session of classes will actually be a lot of the proof in the pudding, and DoD will be there to help through this. This is new so we want to make sure we get it right.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2020/03/industry-on-pins-and-needles-as-dod-accreditation-body-to-finalize-cmmc-agreement/

March 19, 2020 By cs

U.S. allies considering adopting Pentagon’s CMMC cybersecurity standards

Foreign partners are considering adopting new cybersecurity standards that industry must eventually adhere to if they want to do business with the Pentagon, the Defense Department’s top weapons buyer said recently.

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification version 1.0, or CMMC, was released in January. The aim of the initiative is to prod the defense industrial base to better protect its networks and controlled unclassified information against cyberattacks and theft by competitors such as China. The lower tier of the supply chain is of particular concern to Pentagon officials.

The specific standards that must be met will depend on the program and work that a company will be doing. The level 1 standards will be the least demanding and level 5 the most burdensome.

Third-party assessors, known as C3PAOs, will be trained and approved by a new accreditation body. They will have to certify that a company has met the CMMC standards before it can win contracts.

The new model will be phased in over the next five years to give contractors time to adjust. By fiscal year 2026, all new Defense Department contracts will contain CMMC requirements that companies must meet to win the award.

Now, foreign nations are considering following in the Pentagon’s footsteps, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said at the annual McAleese & Associates defense programs conference in Washington, D.C.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2020/3/4/us-allies-considering-adopting-pentagons-new-cybersecurity-standards-for-industry

Federal buyers spent more than $4.8 million on hand sanitizer alone in the last two months.

The Defense Department officially entered into an agreement with the nonprofit corporation that will serve as the accreditation body for its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, the chief information security officer for the department’s acquisition office confirmed.

The Defense Department raised its threshold for 8(a) sole source contracts to $100 million as required by the 2020 Defense authorization bill. While not related to coronavirus outbreak, the timing is important.

The Defense Department is one small step away from officially getting the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) off the starting blocks.

Foreign partners are considering adopting new cybersecurity standards that industry must eventually adhere to if they want to do business with the Pentagon, the Defense Department’s top weapons buyer said recently.

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