Another Year, Another Shutdown...Maybe!

It is amazing how little gets accomplished in D.C., except of course how often the Government plays chicken with itself. It is that time of year again when the Republicans and Democrats face off to determine how to keep a shutdown from occuring while trying to bend the rules and protect themselves. Why is it only themselves they are worried about and not the people who elected them? Oh, now I remember, its because they will continue to get paid, receive benefits and have full retirement NO matter what happens. Latest article here.

Getting tired of delays due to award protests? So is the PSC.

The PSC is the Professional Services Council, an organization that represents government services contractors. The are lobbying for assistance from legislatures to improve current acquisition issues on award notices and the high number of protests. The issue that is causing a lot of delays has been with award protests caused mostly by the lack of specific data as to the reasons for non-selection. Some companies feel the need to protest in order to get more information as to the evaluations of their proposal. PSC believes more information should be provided at the time of the award notice, which may significantly reduce the number of protests issued. Read more here.

The US Army and US Air Force are working together...and they saved money? How?

Somehow the DoD is catching on to what the rest of the US has already understood, save money with less and learn to share. The Army and Air Force are working together on an IT networking security, bandwidth, and upgrade to ensure that they get the project completed but also save money. The Army saved about $1B in future costs, and the AF saved about $1.2B. Read about it here.

Budget cuts cause supply chain upgrades...its about time!!

So the government is becoming quite efficient with some of its agency supply chains. Its about time! Upgrades typically cost more than they are worth, and work less than they should. How are these upgrades working so far, and for whom are they for? Not bad, however, they are only ramping up small efforts. The bigger upgrades have either been cancelled or put on hold. See the article here.

Who ever said sequester was good for growth?

Once again a billionaire has stated our economy is better off with the sequester than if the government stopped meddling with our tax dollars. Surprise! What do the facts show? Our economy is sluggish, as expected, and the sequester is doing major damage now and in the future. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-21/please-stop-saying-the-sequester-is-good-for-growth

More sequestration problems!! Can you say furlough?

@FederalTimes: Sequester may undo gains in building contracting workforce http://t.co/afL8qwJiH2

What is CBAR? Well its not FUBAR...at least not yet!

The CBAR system is Contractor Business Analysis Repository that is administered by Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). CBAR is now being used by Contracting Officers for cost analysis on defense contractors prices on previous proposal submissions. CBAR shows trends of pricing and cost analysis data with regard to cost estimating systems and practices of all DOD contractors managed by DCMA. For now, there is a small percentage of approved CO's due to the sensitive proprietary nature of the data. The Pentagon has created ICATs (Integrated Cost Analysis Teams) to assist any and all CO's with the data analysis and information. http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20130623/DEPARTMENTS01/306230006/How-DoD-became-smarter-customer?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p