Month: November 2022

The Carl Levin and Howard P. McKeon National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year (FY) 2015 passed the Senate Friday night by a bipartisan vote of 89-11, after the House passed the measure 300-119. The bill includes $495.9 billion for the Department of Defense’s (DoD) base budget, $63.7 billion overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget, and $17.9 billion for the Department of Energy related to maintaining the nation’s nuclear arsenal (Alexander, 2014). The FY 2015 NDAA also institutes a host of provisions related to curbing military benefits, creates a new DoD leadership position – the Under Secretary of Defense for Business Management and Information (USDBMI), and provides the Navy with billions in extra procurement funding.  

The 2015 NDAA enacts measures to curtail rising DoD personnel costs, such as increasing co-pays related to prescription drugs by $3, decreasing pay raises to 1% – below the current rate of inflation, and prohibiting further wage raises for flag officers. Departing Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin expressed his concern that the spending caps imposed by sequestration, in conjunction with rising of personnel costs will erode military readiness.

Personnel-related DoD expenditures rose to $177 billion in FY 2014, and non-DoD spending related to veteran care and benefits totaled $235 billion (Harrison, 2014). The concurrent rise of personnel costs with budget caps imposed by sequestration on the DoD’s base budget effectively causes the DoD’s O&M, RDT&E, and procurement accounts to be disproportionately affected. 

As part of his final contributions in Congress, Mr. Levin also crafted provisions related to the creation of the USDBMI position, which will be filled in 2017. The USDBMI will be the third highest ranking official within the DoD, and will assume the current responsibilities of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Deputy Chief Management Officer (DCMO). Former DCMO Beth McGrath is a staunch supporter of the new position, and stated, “We were looking across the whole of the IT space to make sure we were more synergistic than operating separately. The DCMO office and the CIO office do so many things together already that, to me, it’s not unnatural at all.” The DoD requested a position similar to the USDBMI in the 2013 Strategic Choices and Management Review, as part of a five year initiative to find additional savings by consolidating headquarter operating costs (Boyd, 2014). By instituting cost saving measures such as reductions in personnel overhead and consolidation of the DCMO and CIO, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hopes to mitigate the effects of sequestration on O&M and procurement budget items, in order to preserve the nation’s military capabilities. 

The US Navy received an additional $2.9 billion in procurement funding, raising the total Navy procurement budget to $41.3 billion out of the DoD’s $101.9 billion procurement budget.  A total of $1.46 billion has been allocated to purchase an additional 15 EA-18G aircraft, an electronic attack variant of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which will partially meet the Navy’s unfunded priority request for 22 additional EA-18Gs. With the new order for EA-18Gs, Boeing will be able to keep the F/A-18E/F production line open until 2017. This supplemental procurement funding also enables the Navy to acquire an additional Austal built Joint High Speed Vessel, three MQ-8C Fire Scout UAVs, and partially funds the construction of LPD-28 – a new San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock vessel (Cavas, 2014).  Operations and maintenance (O&M) funds were cut to compensate for the relatively higher procurement budget; the ship operations and maintenance (O&M) budget was cut $1.7 billion and the Marine O&M budget was cut from $5.9 billion to $5.6 billion. Overall, the high-end added procurement items reflect the transition within the DoD from operating in Iraq and Afghanistan to countering great power threats from Russia and China. 

Sources

1. Congress Authorizes $577 Billion in U.S. Defense Spending, David Alexander, 2014. 
   http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/12/us-usa-defense-spending-idUSKBN0JQ28B20141212
2. Congress Inserts $554B for DoD in ‘Cromnibus’ Spending Bill, John T. Bennett, 2014.
   http://www.defensenews.com/article/20141210/CONGRESSWATCH/312100030/Congress-Inserts-554B-DoD-Cromnibus-Spending-Bill
3. DoD Management Would Be Reorganized in NDAA, Aaron Boyd, 2014.
   http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20141205/FEDIT03/312050015/DoD-management-would-reorganized-NDAA
4. Senate Sends Massive $560 Billion NDAA to Obama’s Desk, John T. Bennett, 2014.
   http://www.defensenews.com/article/20141212/CONGRESSWATCH/312120028/Senate-Sends-Massive-560-Billion-NDAA-Obama-s-Desk
5. Massive Defense Policy Bill Sent to President, Jeremy Herb, 2014.
   http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/defense-policy-bill-2014-113548.html?hp=c1_3
6. After Dramatic Day, House Approves $554B for Pentagon, John T. Bennett, 2014.
   http://www.defensenews.com/article/20141211/DEFREG/312110044/After-Dramatic-Day-House-Approves-554B-Pentagon
7. Spending Bill Shields Commissaries from Cuts in 2015, Travis J. Tritten, 2014.
   http://www.stripes.com/news/spending-bill-shields-commissaries-from-cuts-in-2015-1.318539
8. 15 Things to Know about the NDAA, Andy Medici, 2014.
   http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20141208/MGMT04/312080006/15-things-every-federal-employee-should-know-about-National-Defense-Authorization-Act
9. Navy Gains a Ship, 15 Growlers in Defense Bill, Christopher P. Cavas, 2014.
   http://www.defensenews.com/article/20141212/DEFREG/312120029/Navy-Gains-Ship-15-Growlers-Defense-Bill
10. Levin Is Leaving Congress Disappointed the NDAA Doesn’t Do More, Molly O’Toole , 2014.
    http://www.defenseone.com/politics/2014/12/levin-leaving-congress-disappointed-ndaa-doesnt-do-more/101004/?oref=d-river
11. House Passes $585B Defense Bill, Kristina Wong and Cristina Marcos, 2014.  
    http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/226039-house-passes-2015-defense-authorization
12. Chaos and Uncertainty – The FY 2014 Budget and Beyond, Todd Harrison, 2014.
    http://www.csbaonline.org/publications/2013/10/chaos-and-uncertainty-the-fy-14-defense-budget-and-beyond/
13. Analysis: Congress Reworks 10 Percent of DoD Procurement Budget, PAUL McLeary and Bradley Peniston, 2014.
    http://www.defensenews.com/article/20141215/DEFREG02/312150014/Analysis-Congress-Reworks-10-Percent-DoD-Procurement-Budget

The House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies & the Subcommittee on Research and Technology recently held a joint hearing on the potential re-authorization of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) directorate. S&T’s objective is to develop new technologies for agencies under DHS such as the Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, etc. to better protect the homeland from a wide variety of threats. Representatives from both committees were concerned on the level of redundant research programs within S&T’s $1.2 billion budget across DHS; Chairman Lamar Smith highlighted a government accountability office report which described S&T’s R&D management approach as “fragmented and overlapping.” 

Undersecretary Brothers responded by providing an overview of S&T’s current R&D priorities, which are guided by the quadrennial homeland security review and the direction of DHS Secretary Johnson:

noninvasive screening, augmenting the resilience of the nation’s cyber infrastructure, empowering decision makers with actionable information, and improving the effectiveness of threat responders.  Brothers emphasized the need to balance short term applied research with riskier, but potentially higher reward, long term basic research projects. In recent years, S&T has reduced basic research spending to increase its short term deliverables to end users via applied research projects. In terms of future projects, Undersecretary Brothers indicated he plans to expand S&T’s R&D portfolio to include more commercial off-the-shelf projects to better counter emerging disruptive technologies.

Undersecretary Brothers was confident in the existing channels, such as the Developmental Working Group and the Mission Executive Council, that enable S&T to leverage existing technologies utilized by other government agencies. For example, the developmental working group assists S&T in assimilating relevant Department of Defense (DoD) technology and the mission executive council helps coordinate technical capabilities between the Department of Energy, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the DoD.

Representative Thompson was concerned with S&T’s small business record, and stressed the need for S&T to expand its outreach toward small and/or minority owned businesses going forward. Undersecretary Brothers agreed small businesses were an important potential source of S&T innovation, but expressed concern that many small businesses lack experience working with the federal government. In response to Representative Thompson’s concerns, Undersecretary Brothers indicated he is actively reviewing how S&T interacts with small businesses through standard industry days, and plans to expand S&T’s social media outreach toward small businesses in the future.

For a list of upcoming S&T Events, see the DHS website: http://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/st-events

For more information about the S&T Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR), please visit the website: http://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/sbir

Sources

1. Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies & Subcommittee on Research and Technology Joint Hearing – Strategy and Mission of the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, 2014.
   http://science.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-cybersecurity-infrastructure-protection-and-security-technologies-subcommittee
2. Testimony of the Honorable Reginald Brothers Undersecretary for Science and Technology U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2014.
   http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/HHRG-113-SY14-WState-RBrothers-20140909.pdf
3. Targeted DHS R&D can Help Secure our Borders, Cyber Networks, 2014.
   http://science.house.gov/press-release/targeted-dhs-rd-can-help-secure-our-borders-cyber-networks
4. Statement of Research and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), 2014.
   http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/090914_DHS%20S%26T_bucshon.pdf
5. Statement of Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), 2014.
   http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/090914_DHS%20S%26T_smith.pdf

In fiscal year 2014 (FY14) the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) bought $8 billion worth of information technology and cyber products and services for the Department of Defense. During the DISA 2014 forecast to industry event, Major General (MG) Alan Lynn, Vice Director and Senior Procurement Executive at DISA, recently outlined his five main objectives with respect to ongoing and future procurement programs: 

1. Meet small business goals
2. Increase competition
3. Foster greater discipline in acquisition planning
4. Leverage buying power via consolidation of like type items
5. Review all procurements exceeding $10 million

MG Lynn explained that these measures will help DISA cope with sequestration, and expected future budget cuts, “…the future is our budget is going to be decreasing. It’s been pretty significant from what we’ve seen so far. What that means is competition is good for us, and we are going to try and compete as much of the contracts as we have coming out as much as possible…we’ve found that if we compete them, then it drives down prices which is good for us.”

Director of the Office of Small Business Programs at DISA, Sharon Jones, announced that DISA has exceeded all of its goals for small businesses within the past three consecutive years. DISA awarded a total of $4.6 billion to small businesses in FY13, and has increased funding toward small business contracts by 2% each year for the past three years. DISA contracts among small businesses were as follows in FY13: 

• $523 million awarded to Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDBs) 
• $219 million awarded to Woman Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs)
• $255 million awarded to Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) 
• $85 million awarded to HUBZone small businesses 

Jones indicated that DISA intends to increase the total value of contracts awarded to HUBZone small businesses up towards three percent from the current two percent, “We want to work with small business and we want to bring in the best products and services for our warfighters. So in the one area I really want to highlight here, because we really do need to bring in additional companies in this one area to help that endeavor, is those that are HUBZones…We are trying to increase our HUBZone goal. I want to eventually be able to say we can meet the three percent.” 

Jones concluded her remarks by stressing the importance for small businesses to choose appropriate teaming partners and to respond to sources sought and RFIs well in advance of industry days.

Related Reading: An Entrepreneur’s Guide for Marketing within DISA

Sources

1. DISA 2014 Forecast to Industry
   http://www.disa.mil/News/Stories/2014/~/media/Files/DISA/News/Conference/2014/Forecast-2014-Presentation.pdf
2. MG Alan R. Lynn, DISA Vice Director
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZPhb90j8sY&list=PLRPVoCgP5zRYV6wLxduyig9biLLUIpsuW&index=2
3. Sharon Jones, Director, Office of Small Business Programs, 2014. 
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WERt8AiM8e4&index=3&list=PLRPVoCgP5zRYV6wLxduyig9biLLUIpsuW 
4. DISA Launches 5 Cloud Tests, Warns On Industry Consolidation, Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., 2014. 
   http://breakingdefense.com/2014/08/disa-launches-5-cloud-tests-warns-on-industry-consolidation/ 
5. DISA Conducts Forecast To Industry
   http://www.disa.mil/News/Stories/2014/Forecast-to-Industry 

The Obama Administration has requested $1 billion in Department of Defense (DoD) reappropriations to augment efforts to contain the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. 

As of late October, the House Appropriations, House Armed Services, and Senate Armed Services committees have approved $750 million dollars in DoD reappropriations, which will come from the overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget, though the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) has yet to approve this request. Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) announced the SAC will hold a hearing on Ebola reappropriations on November 6th, shortly after the midterm elections. 

This $750 million would be used for the construction of 17 new medical and treatment facilities, as well as building more support laboratories, training medical personnel, and covering the cost in logistics associated with the deployment of 4,000 US troops to West Africa over the course of six months. The US Naval Medical Research Center currently operates three Ebola testing labs, and there have already been requests for several more; this funding would help cover the cost of opening additional labs and bringing in trained scientists.   General David Rodriguez, commander of Africa Command, indicated that troops would be headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, in coordination with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Centers of Disease Control (CDC). The objective of this initiative is 70% of all infected persons taken to treatment facilities, at which point CDC projections indicate the rate of infections will steadily decrease. In late October, the World Health Organization reported that to date there have been more than 13,700 cases of Ebola in six countries, and 4,922 deaths. 

The Office of Management and Budget reported $311.3 million dollars has already been spent by the CDC, DoD, USAID, and National Institutes of Health by October. The items listed below were paid for by existing appropriations as reported by Reuters: 

• $1 million in security costs
• $10 million for health workers
• $11 million for protective gear
• $22 million for field hospitals
• $35 million for increased laboratory detection and screening capabilities
• $95 million for the development of medical countermeasures, of which: $8.6 million went to Profectus BioSciences Inc. for the development of an Ebola vaccine; and $58 million for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
• $137 million for laboratory surveillance, logistics and relief commodities

The Hill reported in late October that the Obama Administration is in the midst of talks with members of Congress for additional funding on top of the $750 million DoD reappropriations and $311 million already spent. Ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee James Inhofe (R-OK) has expressed his concern with the limited six month duration of funding, and has called for longer term appropriations—though he has also expressed great concern over the lack of overall strategy for tackling Ebola.

In early October, General Rodriguez indicated the Ebola mission would likely last one year but could take longer, “We’re going to stay as long as we’re needed. … It will be about a year, but that is just a guess… This is not a small effort, and this is not a short period of time.” Additional funding to support DoD efforts related to Ebola beyond the next six months would likely come from additional reappropriations within OCO budget, and BARDA and the CDC will probably continue to be heavily involved with developing and testing Ebola countermeasures regardless of where the next round of funding is drawn.

Sources

1. U.S. Response to the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa, Office of the Press Secretary, 2014. 
   http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/16/fact-sheet-us-response-ebola-epidemic-west-africa
2. Factbox: U.S. funds to fight Ebola now top $1 billion, may rise, David Lawder, 2014. 
   http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/13/us-health-ebola-usa-money-idUSKCN0I223N20141013   
3. House approves $750M in Ebola funding held up in Senate panel, Kristina Wong, 2014. 
   http://thehill.com/policy/defense/220288-house-approves-750m-in-ebola-funding-still-held-up-in-senate
4. White House begins talks with Congress on new Ebola funding, Justin Sink, 2014. 
   http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/221243-white-house-begins-talks-with-congress-on-new-ebola-funding
   
5. Senate Appropriations to hold Ebola hearing in November, Rebecca Shabad, 2014. 
   http://thehill.com/policy/finance/221247-approps-chairwoman-announces-ebola-funding-hearing
6. Ebola by the numbers, Rebecca Shabad, 2014. 
   http://thehill.com/policy/finance/221118-ebola-by-the-numbers
7. TRANSCRIPT: Pentagon Briefing on DoD Response to Ebola with GEN Rodriguez, United States Africa Command, 2014.
   http://www.africom.mil/newsroom/article/23695/transcript-pentagon-briefing-on-dod-response-to-ebola-with-gen-rodriguez
8. Ebola Response Roadmap Situation Report, World Health Organization, 2014.
   http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/137376/1/roadmapsitrep_29Oct2014_eng.pdf?ua=1
9. Holdout Senator Frees Up Military’s Ebolda Funding, John Hudson and Kate Brannen, 2014.
   http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/10/09/militarys_ebola_funding_tied_up_in_the_senate

Partner Lyn Sherlock (top) with Ms. Elinor Otto and Ada Wyn Parker-loy

growth[period] Partner Lyn Sherlock, Brigadier General, US Air Force (retired), was the featured speaker at the Women’s Memorial 21st Annual Memorial Day Program in Arlington, VA. The event was put on by the Spirit of ’45 organization honoring those who served in WWII, including the over 1,000 Women’s Air Force Service Pilots and over 300,000 Rosie the Riveters. Two Rosie’s were in attendance: Ms Elinor Otto, who continued building military aircraft until the age of 95, and Ada Wyn Parker-Loy, whose sister was the model for the famous Rosie the Riveter poster.

The event included formal military honors and a keynote address, remarks from past and present military women representing each of the services, and the Memorial’s signature event, the scattering of rose petals in tribute to departed comrades.

Read more about the Women In Military Service For America Memorial here.

October 2020- growth[period] CEO Courtney Spaeth appeared on The Big Idea (R) podcast of the National Association of Business Owners & Entrepreneurs (NABOE) hosted by Ron Wills. Courtney discussed the challenges small businesses face and her focus on success, not survival. Watch the full episode here: Why Courtney Spaeth Is Focused On Success, Not Survival – YouTube