Agencies could be liable for certain costs under sequestration

by Jason Miller - Federal News Radio

Agencies will be liable for many of the costs coming from the termination of contracts, including legal fees and employee compensation costs, if sequestration happens Jan. 2 and if vendors do not issue layoff notices this fall.  The Office of Management and Budget issued guidance today detailing what types of costs vendors could charge back to agency customers under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.  CLICK HERE to see the rest of the article.  Also, letter from the letter from the  the Director of the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy to NDIA regarding WARN Act related compliance costs was issued last week.

DOD, Nation Face Strategic Choices, Deputy Secretary Says

By Cheryl Pellerin - American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2012 – Grappling with the converging forces of strategic history and fiscal necessity, the Defense Department is making choices now that will determine how the nation transitions to the coming era, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said today.

CLICK HERE for complete document.  ALSO By Tony Capaccio on September 28, 2012 from Bloomberg Business Week - Pentagon Spending Shouldn’t Slow Before Cuts, Carter Says  CLICK HERE for article   

CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was established in 1958 to prevent strategic surprise from negatively impacting U.S. national security and create strategic surprise for U.S. adversaries by maintaining the technological superiority of the U.S. military.

Current are available at THE DARPA WEBSITE and for Cyber Security READ ARTICLE.

Small Business Technology Transfer Program Phase I Solicitation FY-2013 (STTR) for National Science Foundation will open in October
 

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is interested in receiving proposals for Long-Range Science and Technology (S&T) Projects which offer potential for advancement and improvement of Navy and Marine Corps operations.  CLICK HERE for the Broad Agency Announcement.

 

Department of Energy SBIR is due October 16, 2012. CLICK HERE to view the solicitation. 

 

The FY12 Air Force Defense Research and Development Rapid Innovation Fund (RIF) Program Broad Agency Announcement  The initial White Paper is due Nov 17, 2012.  CLICK HERE to link to the BAA.

GSA's SAM continues to frustrate its users

Recent article from FCW CLICK HERE

 

DoD grants deviation from initial SAM registration requirements CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO MEMO You will still need an active SAM registration to get paid.

 

REMEMBER

 

·         REGISTERING IN SAM or UPDATING OF YOUR SAM REGISTRATION IS FREE.

 

·         In order to get a current SAM registration submitted, every page of SAM must go thru the update and correction process.

 

·         If you are a small business, make sure that when you reach the end of the SAM registration you select the option tthat will take you to the SBA DSBS site.

 

·         The direct link to the Dynamic Small Business System CLICK HERE

 

If you need assistance, contact WPI at 414-270-3600 or email info@wispro.org

Industrial Base - U.S. Tactical Wheeled Vehicle Manufacturers Face Period of Uncertainty as DOD Purchases Decline and Foreign Sales Potential Remains Unknown

GAO-12-859, Sep 13, 2012

TO read the GAO report CLICK HERE

DoD works to institutionalize contracting lessons from Iraq, Afghanistan

 By Jared Serbu @jserbuWFEDThursday - 9/13/2012, 6:06am EDT

 

The Pentagon doesn't deny it made major, costly mistakes when it came to service contracting in the first years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Defense leaders say they also learned valuable lessons they want to bake into the military's training and doctrine that will guide contingency operations from now on.

 

But DoD also says it's clear that the military won't ever go into a contingency operation again without a big contingent of contractors, so it needs to institutionalize contracting expertise into the way it plans operations and trains its people.

 

Read the rest of the story at CLICK HERE

OFPP keeping a close eye on struggling acquisition system consolidation 

By Jason Miller  @jmillerWFED Wednesday - 9/12/2012, 5:24am EDT

 

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the federal chief information officer's office are paying close attention to how the General Services Administration fixes the System for Award Management (SAM).

GSA launched SAM July 31 with the goal of consolidating eight acquisition databases, including the Central Contractor Registration, the Past Performance Information Retrieval System and six others. SAM immediately ran into trouble and GSA issued its contractor, IBM, a letter of concern.

To read the rest of the story CLICK HERE

White House draft cyber order promotes voluntary critical infrastructure protections

By Jason Miller @jmillerWFED    Friday 9-7-2012 7:48pm

The White House so far has failed to get a bill passed by both houses of Congress to improve the cybersecurity of the nation's critical infrastructure, so they want to take an alternative approach.The administration has created a draft executive order detailing how, within its authority, it would improve the information assurance of the nation's critical infrastructure, such as the power grid and financial industries.
Read the rest at CLICK HERE

Three contractors tapped to develop smart Humvee replacements

                                                

By Bob Brewin August 23, 2012

 

The Army and Marine Corps awarded three companies development contracts Wednesday for their next generation of wheeled tactical vehicles, which will require a gigabit speed local area network to support onboard computers, communications and electronic warfare systems.

 

AM General, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Oshkosh Corp. won 27-month engineering and development contracts valued at $64.5 million, $66.3 million and $56.4 million respectively to produce 22 prototype Joint Light Tactical Vehicles each. The services will evaluate the prototypes at Army test centers in Arizona, Maryland and New Mexico. 
For full story CLICK HERE

Army Contracting Command easing burden on contracting officers

By Jason Miller - Executive Editor - Federal News Radio Thursday - 9/6/2012, 8:32pm EDT

The Army Contracting Command is helping to lead an effort to modernize the service's contract writing system.

This is more than just a technology refresh. It's about improving the functionality of the existing contract writing tools that many contracting officers use every day.

 

"A lot of our contract writing applications are supporting architectures that are 8-to-10 years old, which is a lifetime in the technology business," said Gino Magnifico, the Army Contracting Command's chief information officer. "One of things that we are looking at as a structure, not just across the Army but all of DoD, is how do we upgrade our capabilities in contracting writing areas and get applications that are really more modernized, that reflect architectures, that work really well in these different environments, everything from sustainment to these thin solutions to these communication satellite requirements that we really try to leverage in this command."

Read the rest of the story  CLICK HERE 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -By Andrea Shalal-Esa

Wed Aug 29, 2012 6:39pm EDT

A little-known aspect of U.S. contract law may provide a road map for how the Obama administration can implement billions of dollars of automatic budget cuts due to take effect in January without having to pay massive change fees to its contractors.

U.S. courts have found that the government has certain contractual rights because of its sovereign standing, including the right to unilaterally change the terms of its contracts, delay or stop work on contracts or terminate them outright, a congressional report found.

 

Read the story at Reuters.com

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)

Current Federal contractors should be aware of the WARN Act - current issues regarding decreasing Federal budgets and Sequestration have made this requirement a point of controversy.  
Recent press such as:

• GovExec article GOP lawmakers to contractors: Defy Labor Dept., warn employees of sequestration layoffs
• Labor Dept. Pushes Back Against WARN Act Claims 

OVERVIEW of WARN
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) protects workers, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs.
Employee entitled to notice under WARN include managers and supervisors, as well as hourly and salaried workers. WARN requires that notice also be given to employees' representatives, the local chief elected official, and the state dislocated worker unit.
Advance notice gives workers and their families some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to seek and obtain other jobs, and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to compete successfully in the job market.
       Generally, WARN covers employers with 100 or more employees, not counting those who have worked less than six months in the last 12 months and those who work an average of less than 20 hours a week.
       Employees entitled to advance notice under WARN include managers and supervisors as well as hourly and salaried workers.
       Regular federal, state, and local government entities that provide public services are not covered by WARN.
The Department of Labor's (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA) administers WARN at the federal level, and some states have plant closure laws of their own. A State Dislocated Worker Unit Coordinator can provide more information on notice requirements in a specific area.
DOL has no enforcement role in seeking damages for workers who did not receive adequate notice of a layoff or received no notice at all. However, they can assist workers in finding a new job or learning about training opportunities that are available.

Information on Department of Labor website http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-warn.htm