Federal contract protests hit 10-year high
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| January 2, 2009 |
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As the economy tanked, there were more challenges to federal contract decisions in 2008 than any other year in the past decade - including challenges from Oshkosh Corp. and Manitowoc Co.'s Marinette Marine division.
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Tom Koopmeiners receives Corps of Engineers award
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| December 20, 2008 |
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SAINT PAUL, MINN. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters in Washington, D.C., awarded St. Paul District employee and Brooklyn Park, Minn., resident Tom Koopmeiners, its Small Business Programs Manager of the Year award this month.
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Obama picks Karen Gordon Mills to head SBA
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| December 19, 2008 |
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U.S. Small Business Administration Acting Administrator Sandy K. Baruah issued the following statement on President-Elect Barack Obama's nomination of Karen Mills to be the next SBA Administrator:
"I applaud, and welcom, President-Elect Obama's selection of Karen Gordon Mills to serve as the next Administrator of the SBA."
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Self-reporting rule for contractors takes effect
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| December 15, 2008 |
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The controversial new Federal Acquisition Regulation rule requiring contractors to disclose government overpayments and their own criminal contracting violations went into effect Dec. 12 at 9 a.m.
Under the new FAR rule, company executives must disclose to the inspector general of the agency with which they have a contract as soon as there is "credible evidence" that the company or one of its employees has violated contracting regulations related to fraud, bribery, conflicts of interest, false claims or gratuity.
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Experts: Value beats price to avoid fake IT
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| December 12, 2008 |
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As government regulators consider tougher ways to block counterfeit information technology products from entering the federal marketplace, they’re restarting an old debate about whether to award contracts based on the lowest bid or the best value.
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Obama urged to focus on performance-based gov't
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| December 10, 2008 |
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Obama urged to focus on performance-based government
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt bballenstedt@govexec.com December 10, 2008 Members of a coalition of good-government groups have met with representatives of President-elect Barack Obama's transition teams to promote an agenda focused on improving measurement of the performance of government programs.
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HUBZone firms get preference for set-asides
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| November 21, 2008 |
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One word in the acquisition regulation lifts the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) program above all other small-business programs.
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2009 DHS Grant Programs
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| November 17, 2008 |
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In Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will award more than $3 billion (an increase of $24 million from FY08) in grants to states, urban areas, and transportation authority’s under 14 programs to bolster national preparedness capabilities and protect critical infrastructure. The funding includes more than $1.7 billion for the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP):
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DOD seeks expanded net-centric services
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| November 17, 2008 |
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The Defense Information Systems Agency hopes to expand its use of collaboration technology beyond its traditional office applications, agency officials said at an industry day event last week.
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DHS seeks revised infrastructure plan
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| November 17, 2008 |
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The Homeland Security Department is looking for public input as it prepares for next year's release of a revised version of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP).
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New contractor self-reporting rule
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| November 13, 2008 |
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OMB issues memo on new contractor self-reporting ruleBy Elizabeth Newell enewell@govexec.com November 13, 2008 The Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum to chief acquisition officers and senior procurement executives on Thursday informing them of a new rule requiring companies to disclose government overpayments and their own criminal contracting violations.
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GSA creates new MAS to help agencies go green
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| November 10, 2008 |
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The General Services Administration recently created the Energy Management Services contract by creating a combined service and adding to an energy services schedule that has existed since 2000.
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GAO's Efforts to Assist New Administration
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| October 29, 2008 |
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GAO will highlight issues that the new President, his appointees, and the Congress will confront from day one. These include immediate challenges ranging from national and homeland security to oversight of financial institutions and markets to a range of public health and safety issues.
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USDA Publishes Rule for Biobased Items Procurement
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| October 23, 2008 |
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USDA published round 5 proposed rule designating nine additional biobased items for federal procurement.
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Defense Supplier GAO Report
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| October 23, 2008 |
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A Departmentwide Framework to Identify and Report Gaps in the Defense Supplier Base Is Needed - a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
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Washington Post Confirms SBA Contracting Numbers
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| October 22, 2008 |
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Today The Washington Post reported that in 2007, $5 billion of federal contracts coded as having gone to small businesses actually went to large companies. This finding confirms the U.S. Small Business Administration's long-stated assessment of the relative size of the large business/small business contracting issue and refutes claims that a much larger sum goes to larg companies.
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DoD Investing in Energy Conservation
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| October 21, 2008 |
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By Navy Seaman William Selby
Special to American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2008 – The Defense Department is constantly looking for ways to proactively conserve and reuse energy, a department official said.
“We’re really leading the nation in looking at energy and considering energy,” Mindy Montgomery, deputy director for investment, Office of the Director for Defense Research and Engineering, said during a teleconference with bloggers yesterday.
Montgomery said that every $10 increase in the price of a barrel of oilraises the DoD’s fuel spending by $1.3 billion per year. The department has spent $3 billion to $5 billion extra each year due to the price increase over the last couple years, she said.
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Bush Signs Fiscal 2009 Defense Budget Into Law
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| October 14, 2008 |
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2008 – President Bush signed the fiscal 2009 defense budget into law today, authorizing a $512 billion base to support military readiness, as well as $66 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The law also authorizes a 3.9 percent pay raise for servicemembers, to take effect Jan. 1. This represents a one-half-percent increase over Bush’s initial request.
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Poor contract oversight costing GSA
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| October 13, 2008 |
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The General Services Administration’s poor acquisition planning and contract oversight is costing the agency much more than necessary to award the massive Alliant and Alliant Small Business contracts.
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Set-asides offer billions in contracting prospects
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| October 9, 2008 |
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Growth in prime contracts awarded to small businesses is leveling off, but the top opportunities still offer more than $8.5 billion in potential value, according to a new report from the research firm INPUT.
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SBA to stop certifying disadvantaged businesses
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| October 6, 2008 |
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Link to interim rule embedded in article. This is currently open for comment until November 3.
The Small Business Administration will no longer verify the status of companies seeking certification as small disadvantaged businesses, shifting the time-consuming and costly application process to the companies themselves or to third parties.
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Treasury Solicits for Financial Agents
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| October 6, 2008 |
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Washington, DC--The Treasury Department posted today three solicitations for financial agents to provide services that are needed for the effective implementation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program authorized under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. The three services being sought are:
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Wisconsin firms, schools get defense contracts
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| October 2, 2008 |
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University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been awarded $2.4 million from the federal government to help develop a system for rapidly repairing military equipment damaged on the battlefield, including replacement parts made from lighter and stronger materials than the original parts.
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DOE FY 2009 Phase I Funding Opportunities
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| September 25, 2008 |
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The Department of Energy is accepting Phase I grant applications from qualified small businesses for the FY 2009 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. The detailed funding notice and application package are available at grants.gov, Opportunity Number DE-PS02-08ER08-34. You can also view the funding notice at FY 2009 Phase I Funding Notice, s well as the detailed technical topic descriptions in which applications are sought at FY 2009 Technical Topics. Small businesses with strong research capabilities in science or engineering in any of the research areas sought are encouraged to apply. The deadline for submission of grant applications is November 20, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. EST. Applications will only be accepted electronically through grants.gov.
Successful applicants (approximately 300 for SBIR and 30 for STTR) may receive up to $100,000 for a Phase I grant for a period of about nine months to develop the feasibility of the idea. Phase I awardees may apply for Phase II funding up to $750,000 for those ideas with the highest potential to meet program objectives. For more information pertaining to the programs including a list of the research areas, go to www.science.doe.gov/sbir or call 301-903-1414. APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH GRANTS.GOV.
Sincerely,
DOE SBIR/STTR Program Staff
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House Passes Spending Bill
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| September 25, 2008 |
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The House overwhelmingly approved a resolution yesterday to continue funding the federal government until March 6, a stopgap measure needed to avert a government shutdown because Congress has not approved the 12 appropriations bills pending on Capitol Hill.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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NIH director to step down
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| September 24, 2008 |
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Elias Zerhouni, the director of the National Institutes of Health, is expected to announce his departure Wednesday. President Bush picked him in March 2002, and he is regarded by some experts as the administration's most successful administrator.
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County to require domestic partner benefits
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| September 22, 2008 |
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The Dane County Board voted Thursday night to require companies that work for the county on contracts worth $5,000 or more to offer health benefits to their employees' domestic partners. The county already offers domestic partner benefits to its own employees.
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GSA improves small business contracting
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| September 17, 2008 |
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The General Services Administration says it is sending an increasing percentage of its contract dollars to small businesses.
Awards to small firms rose from 32 percent in fiscal 2006 to 34 percent in fiscal 2007, the agency stated. Both rates exceeded the congressionally mandated goal of 23 percent.
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WI National Guard Hurricane Ike Support
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| September 15, 2008 |
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Two updates attached below:
Update 1: CLICK HERE
Update 2: CLICK HERE
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Leinenkugel introduced as Commerce secretary
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| September 8, 2008 |
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Dick Leinenkugel said he has “frugal” travel tastes as he was introduced as the state’s next Commerce secretary.
Leinenkugel, 50, is the vice president of sales and marketing the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. and a fifth generation brewer. He replaces Jack Fischer, who stepped down this summer following reports of the expenses he initially charged taxpayers while on a trade mission.
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5 pieces to the pricing puzzle
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| September 1, 2008 |
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At what point in the procurement process does competition occur?
After 40 hours of discussions, a panel of procurement experts believes it may have an answer to the question, which is nowhere near as simple as it might seem.
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DoD Oct. 2008 Subcontracting Reporting Period
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| August 22, 2008 |
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Deployment of eSRS across the Department of Defense for October 2008 subcontract reporting period
All organizations submitting unclassified contract action reports to the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) will be using eSRS for the October 2008 subcontract reporting period, and will continue to use the system for future reporting periods. The OSD Policy Memo, dated 19 July 2008 from Dr. James I. Finley, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition & Technology, outlines the Department's use of eSRS. For questions specific to the Department's deployment, contact the Help Desk at dodesrshelpdesk@bta.mil
As part of the President's Management Agenda for Electronic Government (E-Gov), the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE) and a number of agency partners collaborated to develop the next generation of tools to collect subcontracting accomplishments. This system is known as the Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS).
eSRS provides the government with insight as to how its contracting dollars are being distributed among small and disadvantaged businesses. This authoritative source of subcontracting information provides government users the ability to generate reports and creates higher visibility and increased transparency into subcontracting accomplishments across the government.
Benefits of eSRS
• Allows electronic submission, acceptance, rejection, reporting and analysis of subcontracting data in a real-time paperless environment
• Eliminates the need for paper submissions and processing of Standard Form (SF) 294 and 295s.
• Individual Subcontracting Report (ISR) replaces the SF 294
• Summary Subcontracting Report (SSR) replaces the SF 295
• Easily accessibly Web-based system
• Improves accuracy, timeliness and integrity of data exchanged
• Provides a live interface with Central Contractor Registration (CCR) that automatically populates basic vendor information based on the DUNS
• Provides a live interface with Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG) that automatically populates contract data
CLICK HERE FOR MEMO
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Published changes to the DFARS and the DFARS
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| August 18, 2008 |
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On August 18, 2008, DoD published the following proposed DFARS rule for public comment:
CLICK HERE FOR POSTING
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Technology Innovation Program (TIP) Competition
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| August 15, 2008 |
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The Technology Innovation Program (TIP), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and US Department of Commerce (DoC), is soliciting high risk, high reward research and development proposals.
Due date is September 4, 2008.
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Darpa Pushes To Transition Technology
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| August 15, 2008 |
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The agency's focus has shifted over time, from space and missile defense to counterinsurgency during the Vietnam War; from negating massed Soviet armor in the Cold War to improving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance after the Persian Gulf war. Today, many of its projects are focused on irregular warfare, but much of Darpa's work involves anticipating the military's needs for the war after next.
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DHS Announces New Grant Program
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| August 3, 2008 |
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The department's Office of Emergency Communications developed the NECP in cooperation with more than 150 public and private sector emergency communications officials. The department's new Interoperable Emergency Communications Grant Program will further enable states to align their plans with the NECP.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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House passes construction-VA spending bill
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| August 1, 2008 |
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In its final major act before adjourning for recess, the House voted 409-4 Friday to approve the fiscal 2009 Military Construction-VA spending bill that would provide $72.7 billion in discretionary funding for military construction initiatives and veterans programs.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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Fab Lab brings MIT tech transfer to Wisconsin
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| July 30, 2008 |
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Appleton, Wis. - Fabrication Laboratories, or Fab Labs, are an exercise in global technology sharing spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Wisconsin technical college is putting an entrepreneurial spin on them.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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FY 2008 Homeland Security Grant Program Awards
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| July 25, 2008 |
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Secretary Chertoff: Welcome. I'm glad you could join us here on a very sunny day to talk about the final allocations for several of our grant programs which are designed to help states and localities enhance their capabilities to prevent, protect against, and respond to acts of terrorism and other hazards and emergencies in their communities.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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Procurement mission at Hill transfers to DLA
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| July 20, 2008 |
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June 17 activation ceremony at the Hill Aerospace Museum marked the transfer of 43 Air Force employees to the Defense Logistics Agency here.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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Senate moves military construction bill
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| July 18, 2008 |
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The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved the fiscal 2009 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs funding bill Thursday but only after resolving a dispute that brought a highly unusual partisan 15-14 split on the initial vote for approval.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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Wisconsin R&D 2008
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| July 18, 2008 |
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Wisconsin contractors earned $194 million in federal R&D
contract expenditures in FY 2007.
CLICK HERE FOR REPORT
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OMB to release performance evaluations
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| July 16, 2008 |
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The Office of Management and Budget will release evaluations of the performance of agencies’ major programs by early September, and it expects agencies to use more effective measures to gauge their strengths and weaknesses compared with previous results, Robert Shea, OMB's associate director for management, said recently.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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Agencies competed 64 percent in 2007
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| July 15, 2008 |
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Federal agencies subjected 64 percent of their contracting dollars to some form of competition last year, according to an Office of Management and Budget official.
That is the same amount of competition that agencies conducted for contracted goods and services in the previous two years: 2005 and 2006.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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VA Requires Verification of Veteran Owned Business
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| July 11, 2008 |
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The VA published new interim regulations (http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-10489.htm) requiring VA contracting officers to verify ownership and control of veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB), including service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB). A VA contracting officer may restrict competition for a requirement to a SDVOSB or to a VOSB if that business is listed as “verified” in the Vendor Information Pages (VIP) database at http://VetBiz.gov.
Click here for article
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DOD Announces Empoyer Support Freedom Award
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| July 10, 2008 |
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Department of Defense Announces 2008 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award Recipients
Fifteen Employers Nationwide Receive Top Honor for Guard and Reserve Support
ARLINGTON, VA – The Department of Defense has announced the 2008 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award recipients. The Freedom Award is the highest recognition given by the U.S. Government to employers for their outstanding support of their employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve. The 2008 recipients include:
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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Bush names Small Business Administration Chief
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| June 25, 2008 |
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President Bush has picked Sandy Baruah, an assistant secretary of commerce, to lead the Small Business Administration.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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Cooperative purchasing bill close to becoming law
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| June 11, 2008 |
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The Senate has approved a bill that would allow state and local governments to purchase law enforcement, firefighting and security products and services through a General Services Administration supply schedule.
On Tuesday evening, the Senate agreed by unanimous consent to pass H.R. 3179, also known as the Local Preparedness Acquisition Act.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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DARPA’s Commander’s Aid: From OODA to Deep Green
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| June 3, 2008 |
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DID readers send us some interesting tips. The USA’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency handles futuristic research projects that would be too difficult for the normal defense program R&D process (one of those projects became the Internet). Now its Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) is turning its attention to a project called “Deep Green,” which aims to provide US commanders with significantly better decision support tools in battle.
CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE
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