With just a week to go before the scheduled start of automatic budget cuts, the Pentagon is worried about not having enough cash. What’s the biggest federal agency to do? Tell the folks in accounts payable to slow down. The...
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Photograph by USAF
The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
Pentagon to Accounts Payable: Slow Down
Photograph by George Frey/Bloomberg
A construction worker makes final adjustments to a large autoclave at Alliant Techsystems Inc.'s ATK Aerospace Structures - ACCW Facility. Alliant is the largest supplier of rifle rounds to the U.S. military.
Revenue Decreases for 40% of U.S. Contractors, Survey Says
Government contractors are experiencing more decreases in revenue than increases for the first time in at least 18 years. Thirty-eight percent of federal contractors saw a decrease in revenue in 2012 from the previous year, according to a Grant Thornton...
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Photograph by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Demonstrators protest proposed cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid in Boston.
Sequestration Frustration Peaks Among Contract Managers
In the federal contracting world it’s “frustration all around” as the government careens toward yet another deadline for automatic cuts known as sequestration, according to the head of the National Contract Management Association. “Some things have been resolved, but nothing...
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Photograph by Alex Brandon/AP Photo
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act.
Bonus Buster Becomes Law
Senior federal employees risk losing bonuses if their agencies fail to meet government goals of awarding 23 percent of eligible contract funds to small businesses. The bonus-busting measure is part of the defense bill signed into law today by President...
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Photograph by Tadas Kazakevicius/Getty Images
Contractors Skip Shopping Spree
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. is in no post-Christmas rush to find deals. With Washington’s budget impasse threatening $500 billion in additional defense cuts over a decade, San Diego-based Kratos and other military contractors are hunkering down and stockpiling cash. Kratos has put...
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Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images
A Yellow Pages Caucus was formed in Feb. 2012 to try to open up bidding for services performed by the government that can be done by private contractors.
Contractor Pay Cap Reduction Killed
U.S. lawmakers may be looking to reduce the nation’s deficit, but they won’t be taking pay away from employees who work for the government’s army of contractors. Congress has decided to keep reimbursing federal contractors as much as $763,000 annually...
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Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images
An engineer removes loose stones from the Washington Monument as two U.S. Park Police officers pass.
Washington Monument: Contracted for Repairs 16 Months After Quake
The Washington Monument stands for a lot of things. In this case, in the aftermath of a rare earthquake, the glacial pace of bureaucracy? It has been almost a year and four months since a temblor with a magnitude of...
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Photograph by Mike Fuentes/Bloomberg
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-16 Fighting Falcon jet during a ceremony to commemorate the 4,500th delivery of the plane.
Budget Cuts Would Hit Contractors Hard
Government is more reliant than ever on private-sector contractors, a Bloomberg Government Study ranking the top 200 federal suppliers says. Downsizing in the 1990s cost hundreds of thousands of federal employees their jobs, but if Congress and the administration let...
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Contributors
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Al Hunt
is a columnist for Bloomberg View and host of the weekly show "Political Capital with Al Hunt" on Bloomberg TV. -
Mark Silva
is deputy managing editor for government news in Washington and editor of Political Capital. He has covered the White House and national politics. -
Emma Fidel
is political editor for Bloomberg.com in Washington. She previously covered financial regulation as a Bloomberg intern. -
Don Frederick
edits political and government coverage for Bloomberg News. He previously worked for more than a decade at the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau. -
Gregory Giroux
analyzes elections, financing of congressional and presidential elections, political advertising and demographics in Bloomberg's Washington Bureau. -
Julie Bykowicz
covers the influence of money and lobbying in Washington, and covered the state legislature and city crime for the Baltimore Sun for 10 years. -
Jonathan Salant
covers campaign finance and lobbying in Washington. He was president of the National Press Club and started in Washington in 1987. -
Richard Rubin
covers federal tax policy. He worked at Congressional Quarterly and The Charlotte Observer before joining Bloomberg News in 2010. -
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
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Lisa Lerer
covers the White House and covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News. She covered Congress, lobbying and the 2008 campaign for Politico. -
John McCormick
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Julianna Goldman
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Hans Nichols
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Margaret Talev
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Cary O'Reilly
is Editor at Large at Bloomberg First Word and is Washington Daybook columnist for Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg News.
