FY18 budget by 3/23; then a rush to spend

      The omnibus appropriations package that Congress needs to complete for fiscal 2018 is approaching a must-do date: March 23. That is when the current Continuing Resolution expires.

      While Congress earlier this month made a bipartisan deal to increase spending by 13%--a major increase for the Defense Dept. and slightly less of a hike for civilian programs--that was a broad-brush deal. The details still need to be worked out. It is not a done deal.

      Meanwhile, there is also a risk of further expansion in the omnibus as lawmakers are seeking to attach additional legislative items to it.

      And even if it passes by the deadline, there will be only six months to spend it. That has people talking about what could be a historic rush to spend those available funds by Sept. 30.

GSA: 81 firms on Alliant 2 Small Biz

      The GSA announced 81 final awards for its Alliant 2 small business contract for IT and professional services, which is expected to generate $15 billion in 10 years.

      The notice came several weeks after GSA made a pre-award notice earlier this year identifying 80 apparent winners of the contract.

      Four of the winners are facing legal challenges to their small business status.

      Three companies on the pre-award notice list did not make the final list of winners, according to Washington Technology: AEEC LLC, Avineon Inc. and Superlative Technologies Inc.

More information: GSA Notice: http://goo.gl/z7nvir

FEMA small biz vendor lied: senators

     Democratic senators are accusing the one-woman FEMA contractor who failed to deliver 30 million meals for Puerto Ricans of lying about her qualifications, CNN reported.

      Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-MO, and two other senators said Tribute Contracting LLC misrepresented its capabilities by plagiarizing information from other companies.

      The senators charged that Tribute had no experience in delivery contracts of the required scale, and a history of canceled federal contracts.

      FEMA canceled the contract after only 50,000 meals were delivered.

More information: CNN report: http://goo.gl/n6CdX1

Women-Owned Opportunities

SBA gov’t contracting funds up 1.5%

Simplified Acquisition & micropurchase thresholds

Top WOSB and EDWOSB Expiring Set-Aside Awardees

Small Biz panel reviews SBA budget

Dem Small Biz panelists offer wish list

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