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Time to start planning for a government shutdown
A possible shutdown double whammy is looming in late September as the government rapidly approaches the statutory limit on federal borrowing and the start of fiscal 2018 without the necessary spending appropriations. Industry experts say neither situation is likely to shut down the government, but the risk is real enough that agencies and contractors should start preparing.
In an Aug. 14 presentation to federal contractors, Professional Services Council President and CEO David Berteau said it would likely be the last weekend of September before either shutdown risk is averted.
Because Sept. 30 falls on a Saturday, it could complicate negotiations between Congress and the White House and lead to a technical shutdown while most federal offices are closed for the weekend. Officials might push a decision on whether to close agencies to Sunday night, and Berteau said that kind of last-minute decision is 95 percent likely.
Alan Chvotkin, PSC’s executive vice president and counsel, and John Cooney, a partner at Venable, told contractors that a shutdown would affect agencies unevenly depending on their funding and rules. For instance, Chvotkin said cloud service providers would probably still provide continuity of service for agencies, but it’s up to agencies to support those cloud services. And it is illegal for contractors to replace federal employees, even temporarily, to perform that support.
If the debt ceiling is not raised, it’s a different situation, according to Chvotkin. Contractors still must fulfill their obligations, but the government
might be unable to pay them. He advised firms to accelerate the submission of invoices if possible or defer them if the government declares it has run out of money.
Berteau said it is worth federal contractors’ time to make preparations for both possibilities.
Cooney said there are two kinds of shutdowns. In a “soft” shutdown, the president and Congress buy time to negotiate a solution. A “hard” shutdown happens if those negotiations are not successful and federal agencies run out of funds.
Cooney said the shutdown mechanism was retooled in the 1980s to give the president more power to force a solution with Congress. But the dynamic has changed. Given that we now have a Republican-controlled Congress and a Republican in the White House, “it will be difficult for the president to use it against Congress,” he added.
— Mark Rockwell
action on legislation, it won’t happen,” Shea said. “And I don’t think they are.” The Heritage report also called on the government to consider a “con- tracting cloud” that would offer a pool of preapproved contractors who could be brought in for specialized or seasonal work without going through established contracts. Greszler said the idea came from speaking with subcon- tractors who complained about having to give a percentage of their payments to prime contractors even though they
did all the work.
Right now the foundation is only
calling for the government to examine the idea’s potential and consider how it might interact with existing vehicles for contracting services.
— Chase Gunter
of IT projects governmentwide are on
schedule, according to the federal IT Dashboard
Will AI tools replace feds?
Seeking to take advantage of a united Republican government and a presi- dent who has vowed to reform the civil service, the Heritage Foundation drafted a pair of reports this year that highlight strategies for consolidating, merging or eliminating various federal agencies, programs and functions.
Among those strategies is a proposal for the Office of Management and Bud- get to issue a report “examining exist- ing government tasks performed by generously paid government employ- ees that could be automated.”
Citing research on the potential impacts of automation on the United Kingdom’s civil service, the conserva- tive think tank estimates that similar efforts in the U.S. could yield $23.9 bil- lion in reduced personnel costs and a
288,000-person reduction in the size of the federal workforce.
Rachel Greszler, one of the reports’ authors, told FCW that the foundation interviewed dozens of former govern- ment employees as part of its research, including many who went on to work in the private sector. “We really wanted to get people who had been in the gov- ernment, who had been in the trenches and knew how it worked,” she said.
Major structural changes to the civil service would require congres- sional approval. At an Aug. 15 Heritage panel discussion on government reor- ganization, Robert Shea, former associ- ate director of OMB, said he does not anticipate the passage of workforce legislation anytime soon.
“If Congress is not prepared to take
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