Republican congressional staffers said the lame-duck Congress plans to adjourn without acting on appropriations for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Instead, Congress was expected to pass a continuing resolution to keep most agencies operating at 2006 budget levels until February.

Only the departments of Defense and Homeland Security have received 2007 appropriations. Other departments will be unable to begin new projects.

The military has counted about 100,000 contractors working in Iraq, the Washington Post reported. That compares to about 140,000 American troops in the country.

The U.S. Central Command has completed its first census of the contractor population. It counted Americans, Iraqis and other nationalities hired by U.S. contractors, not including subcontractors.

The Post said the number is 10 times the estimated number of contractors that deployed during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, reflecting the military’s growing reliance on contractors to replace soldiers in such jobs as providing security, interrogating prisoners, cooking meals, fixing equipment and constructing bases.

The Labor Department has estimated that about 650 contractors have died in Iraq.

SBA says it will open 19 new women’s business centers in fiscal 2007. The agency announced $12 million in grants for the new centers and 80 existing ones.

New centers are opening in Wiscasset, ME; Kenosha, WI; Seattle; New York City; Durant, OK; Philadelphia; Greensburg, PA; Los Angeles; Wilmington, DE; San Antonio; San Luis Obispo, CA; Syracuse, NY; Forest, MS; Newark, NJ; Santa Ana, CA; Huntsville and Mobile, AL; San Bernardino, CA; and Albuquerque.

The Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program is changing its name to AbilityOne. JWOD provides job opportunities through federal contracting preferences for people who are blind or severely disabled.

The name change will “give a stronger, identity to the program and…show a connection between the program name and the abilities of those who are blind or have other severe disabilities, according to the program's governing body, the Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled.