Budget Deadline

Breaking the pattern of recent months, lawmakers in Congress this week appeared to be trying to avoid a dramatic showdown over a federal budget measure. In this case, it’s the pending federal government shutdown scheduled to occur on March 27.

That is the date that the current fiscal 2013 spending resolution expires. Without new spending approvals by Congress, all discretionary federal government expenditures would stop on that date.

According to CNN, the current plan is for the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass a spending resolution that would ease the impact of the sequester cuts on the Defense, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security and Justice departments and NASA. The House GOP reportedly is planning to support the measure, CNN said in a March 19 article.

Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office reported that onogoing actions by Congress in recent years to fund the federal government through stopgap continuing resolutions is disruptive--creating uncertainty in operations, reducing services and raising costs.

More information: GAO report http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-464T

DHS hits Industry Day

The Homeland Security Department cancelled its 6th annual Industry Day, originally scheduled for March 18.

No reason was given. “The 6th Annual Industry Day has been postponed indefinitely and we do not have any further information concerning rescheduling at this time,” stated the notice on FBO.gov on March 2.

However, industry members speculated that the sequester spending cuts and federal travel restrictions may have been factors that contributed to the cancellation.

Guilty of contract fraud

Directors of a company that purported to be a minority-owned disadvantaged small business have pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, the Associated Press reported.

Dawn Hamilton, nominal president and chief executive of Security Assistance Corp. of Arlington, VA, pleaded guilty to falsely representing a company as a minority-owned business.

Her company allegedly was actually run by Keith Hedman, chief executive of Protection Strategies Inc., who also pleaded guilty, the AP said.

All together, the fraud involved four executives at two companies and more than $30 million. All entered guilty pleas.

Hamilton’s company received security contracts from NASA and other agencies by representing itself as a disadvantaged small business, the AP said.

IT overhaul bill

After circulating a draft bill for months, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, introduced an updated version of his federal information technology acquisition legislation.

Under Issa’s new plan, the chief information officers at 16 major civilian agencies, including Veterans Affairs and the Agriculture department, must be presidential appointees or designees and they must report directly to the head of their agency. Today, most CIOs at large agencies are political appointees but not all report to the head of their agencies.

In addition, agencies would have the option of working with a new collaboration center run by the White House. In the draft version of the bill, agencies would have been required to consult with a centralized new entity for contracts exceeding $50 million.

7 win EAGLE II spots

The Homeland Security Department awarded seven teams a place on the small business track for the $22 billion EAGLE II (Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions) contract.

The winners were:

• PPT Solutions (CohesionForce Inc., Culpepper Veterans Associates, Davis-Paige Management Systems LLC, DESE Research Inc.);
• Dynamic Security Concepts (Broadpoint Technologies, Computer Network Assurance, K4 Solutions, Sphinx Solutions);
• Testpros Inc. (Institute for Data Research Inc.);
• PCI Strategic Management LLC (DMC Consulting, Dynamic Technology Group, Lloyd Clark LLC, Secure Innovations LLC);
• Gnostech Inc. (RNB Technologies, Infinity Systems Engineering LLC, Apex Data Systems);
• Mason Harriman Group (Master Key Consulting, AEGIS.net Inc., Endeavor Systems Inc.); and
• Global Network Systems of Maryland Inc. (CTGi, KT Consulting – NV Inc., MTS Technologies, Rainbow Data Systems).

DHS made a previous round of awards on Eagle II in the full-and-open competition category.

Still to be awarded are category 1, service delivery, and category 2, IT program support.