Omnibus spending bill

At press time, House and Senate lawmakers were rushing to finish writing up and approving a massive $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill for a dozen federal departments by Jan. 15, to avoid another government shutdown.

Congressional appropriators said the omnibus would include Defense Department spending for the full fiscal year of 2014.

Easing the way for the omnibus was the sequestration relief and budget deal that passed Congress and was signed by the president in December.

Lawmakers are expected to pass a temporary spending bill if they do not meet the deadline.

OASIS protest denied

The Government Accountability Office dismissed a protest of the General Services Administration’s “OASIS” joint venture requirements.

The protest by Aljucar, Anvil-Incus & Co. claimed that competition would be limited by the GSA’s requirements for joint ventures under the $60 billion professional services unrestricted acquisition vehicle for professional services.

But the GAO upheld GSA’s decision to restrict joint ventures to firms with proven experience and performance under an existing contracting team arrangement.

Aljucar, Anvil-Incus told Federal News Radio they plan to file a request for reconsideration with GAO, and, if necessary, a protest with the Court of Federal Claims.

More information:
Federal News Radio story http://goo.gl/ibzmNE

Bid protests drop a bit

The Government Accountability Office received 2,429 bid protests in fiscal 2013. That was a 2% drop from the 2,475 the year before.

Out of the 509 cases in which GAO reached a decision on the merits, 87--or 17%--were decisions in favor of the protesters, the GAO said in its annual report.

More information:
GAO annual report http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/659993.pdf

DHS EAGLE II

The Homeland Security Department said it is taking a second look at the proposals of all 46 vendors who protested their exclusion from the EAGLE II contract for IT services.

The GAO said it denied the protest because DHS agreed to take corrective action by reevaluating the vendors’ proposals, according to Federal News Radio.

More information:
http://goo.gl/wYijUO

DOD streamlining

Under the new National Defense Authorization Act of 2014, Secretary Chuck Hagel must take action to cut costs and consolidate Defense Department headquarters.

By June, Hagel must develop a plan to reduce staffing and tiers of management. Hagel recently outlined plans for $1 billion in savings by 2019 from headquarters streamlining.

More information:
http://goo.gl/ALsraX