$1.6B for border wall

      The House Appropriations Committee announced it has included $1.6 billion for President Trump’s border wall construction along the U.S.-Mexican border in the Homeland Security funding bill for fiscal 2018.

      The wall funding is politically controversial and opponents are pointing out that it goes against Trump’s campaign promise to have Mexico pay for the border wall.

      The legislation allocates $44.3 billion in discretionary funding for DHS, an increase of $1.9 billion from the fiscal 2017 enacted level. It also includes an additional $6.8 billion for disaster relief and emergency response activities through FEMA.

More information: House Appropriations Committee statement: http://goo.gl/HkPwXP

City grants to improve diversity in procurements

      Five cities are receiving grants of $100,000 with the goal of increasing their procurements with minority-owned and women-owned small businesses.

      The grants are going to Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA: Memphis, TN; and Milwaukee, WI. They are funded by Living Cities and the Citi Foundation.

More information: Grants release: http://goo.gl/TXSzvt

Contracts for 11 SDVOSBs

      The Navy has awarded IT support IDIQ contracts worth up to $92 million to 11 service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. They support the US Naval Academy and other institutions. The awardees are Advanced Onion; Creek Technologies; DirectViz Solutions; Epsilon; Evanhoe & Associates; Innovative Management Concepts; Invictus International Consulting; Logistics Center; Metters Industries; and Metova Federal Network and Simulation Technologies.

DOD: raise micropurchase threshold

Vet-owned get icons on Schedules

FBI HQ kaput

Column: Maximizing bid profits in negotiated procurements

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