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What is a continuing resolution?

A continuing resolution, or CR, is a temporary measure Congress can use to fund the government for a limited time. CRs are typically used to buy time for lawmakers to enact longer-term spending measures.

The passage of a CR usually means the regular process of passing the 12 appropriations bills by the start of the fiscal year has failed because of a standoff between political parties, or between Congress and the president.

While that’s not unusual, the Defense Department — as of mid-November 2019 — has operated under a CR for an average of 119 days per year during the last nine years, compared to an average of 32 days per year during the previous seven, according to the Congressional Research Service.

If Congress and the president fail to act, the government shuts down. Federal agencies are typically disrupted; nonessential operations are suspended, and federal employees and government contractors are left in limbo.

Because a CR will continue the funding rates of the previous year’s appropriations acts, it may bar an agency from starting or resuming a project for which there were no funds the previous year. Before the start of fiscal 2018, for example, the Pentagon identified 75 weapons programs that would experience delays because of the CR’s prohibition on starting new programs and because quantities would be restricted on 40 programs.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/11/18/what-is-a-continuing-resolution/

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Budgets require industry-government cooperation

We should all celebrate the recent passage and signing of the 2019 Bipartisan Budget Act that ended the federal budget impasse and did away with the destructive spending caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Thankfully, the way legislators wrote the budget deal and its two-year coverage means the threat of sequestration has finally passed.

Observers will note, however, the budget deal hints at the feared decline of defense resourcing going forward. While the defense topline grows by 2.64 percent in 2020, that growth slides to 0.33 percent in 2021; and these percentages do not consider inflation. That is well below the 3-5 percent real growth after inflation called for by former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. He saw that growth level as a requirement to regain readiness and make the necessary investments in modernization and recapitalization to ensure the U.S. military can carry out the National Defense Strategy.

While defense experts, think tanks and the Defense Department all call for fully resourcing the strategy, harbingers of flatter defense budgets yet again call for the hard thinking required to get the absolute most out of every defense dollar spent. One critical avenue of that approach is better government-industry collaboration. The more government can work with industry to identify key technology and workforce investments, telegraph future requirements, and develop innovative contracting vehicles, among other things, the more efficiently and cost-effectively industry can provide the best services and products to our warfighters over time.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/8/29/ndia-perspective-budgets-require-industry-government-cooperation

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Lawmakers expect a stopgap spending measure to avoid an October shutdown

Despite the two-year budget deal, agencies are likely to receive a continuation of current spending levels well into the fall, Congressional aides say.

Agencies probably won’t receive new appropriations by the start of the 2020 fiscal year. With current funding set to lapse on Oct. 1, lawmakers appear resigned to pass a continuing resolution to give themselves more time to iron out the details of line-by-line appropriations bills.

The two-year budget deal hammered out primarily between House Democrats and the White House in late July set top-line spending levels, but Congress still must approve a package of 12 funding measures—or pass a CR—to avoid another government shutdown before current appropriations expire.

The House has passed most of the required annual spending bills for fiscal 2020, but lawmakers still must reconcile them with the Senate, which has yet to approve any appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year. The upper chamber delayed work on the spending bills until top-line funding levels were established and the deal was signed by Trump. The Senate Appropriations Committee is set to begin considering the legislation upon returning from recess next month.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/08/lawmakers-expect-stopgap-spending-measure-avoid-october-shutdown/159473/

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Due to shutdown, Cybersecurity Reskilling Academy applications remain open

Federal employees looking to learn cybersecurity skills now have more time to apply for a White House-backed education program.

The application deadline for the charter class of the Federal Cybersecurity Reskilling Academy was supposed to be Friday, but due to the ongoing partial government shutdown, that deadline has been indefinitely postponed.

Federal CIO Suzette Kent tweeted Thursday that the application process for the academy remained open while the shutdown is ongoing.

What’s unclear at this point is how long the application period will be extended and how the shutdown will affect the timeline for assessing and forming the academy’s first cohort. FedScoop reached out to OMB for comment.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/despite-shutdown-kent-says-reskilling-academy-applications-remain-open/

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Data.gov is offline because of the shutdown

Data.gov, the federal government’s central catalog for open data sets, is the latest casualty of the ongoing government shutdown.

Visitors to the site are now met with a simple error message: “Due to a lapse in government funding all data.gov websites will be unavailable until further notice,” it reads. “Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at USA.gov.” Per the Wayback Machine, data.gov appears to have gone offline sometime after 9 a.m. on Jan. 9.

USA.gov, meanwhile, is available but not being updated.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/data-gov-open-data-offline-shutdown/

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