Posts Tagged ‘Government Spending’

“Despite the anticipated belt-tightening under the Obama administration, technology opportunities will emerge in FY2010,” according to Input, a company devoted to federal marketing and government business analysis. Input cited the Department of Veterans Affairs with the most potential for federal spending on IT products and services. It makes a good deal of sense, with the growth in VA claims from returning military personnel. There is no information available about how antiquated the current VA systems are. But, with the expected increase of use, the VA is projected to account for 20% of IT products and serves spending in 2010.

Stimulus and modernization dollars are expected to drive many federal purchases this year as well. The Department of Defense has some big procurement plans  for the Air Force’s Expeditionary Combat Support System in the tune of around $350 million. The Army’s Warfighter Information Network is earmarked at $1 Billion to develop and  install a Mobile, tactical communications system for delivering video, data, imagery, and voice services.

“There are plenty of [agencies] who look past us there,” said Ed O’Hare, assistant commissioner for the Federal Acquisition Service’s Office of Integrated Technology Services (ITS). “Absolutely, we’re losing market share. I’m incredibly concerned.”

O’Hare wants to significantly increase the approximately 30% of federal IT purchases being made through GSA. He will be focusing on the expansion of the use of GSA Contracts for Integrated Technology purchases (Schedule 70).

Federal agencies spend about $22 billion annually on IT purchases made through GSA IT Schedule 70, and several other government-wide contract vehicles. However, that number has remained static over the last several years while the overall federal IT budget has gone up. The GSA will be putting programs into place to increase the use of their IT Schedule 70, and the results will likely show by next year.

President Obama should back a $500 billion plan to make U.S. buildings more energy-efficient because it would aid the economic recovery, increase energy security and reduce global warming. The plan would increase the energy efficiency of 40 percent of commercial and residential buildings by 2020, generating about 625,000 full-time jobs, and saving families $300 to $1,200 a year in energy costs, according to the proposal today by the Center for American Progress. “National policy leadership is required immediately to launch a nationwide energy-efficient retrofit industry,” according to the report.

GSA Schedule 56 covers several energy efficiency categories under building maintenance. The official title of GSA Schedule 56 is “Buildings and Building Materials / Industrial Services and Supplies,” and the sub-category is titled “Solar Energy Systems, Energy Saving Lighting Products & Specialty Lighting.”

There are two distinct ways the Obama Administration will likely grow this industry. The first way is by outfitting the tens of thousands of government buildings that are “energy wasters.” Almost every new federal building constructed after 2005 has been a green building, but there are still so many old buildings that Obama will likely throw billions of dollars into retro-fitting with energy efficient features. By far, the best way to get this government business is to become a government contractor with a GSA Contract.

The second way that Obama will likle y help the energy efficiency industry is through legislation offering tax credits to businesses with energy efficint buildings and homeowners with energy efficient homes. The economic recovery is definietly the top priority right now, however, Obama has hinted that the recovery may include the increase of American jobs through energy efficiency retrofitting. This way he would be killing two birds with one stone.

Paul F. Prouty

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) was established on July 1, 1949, when President Harry Truman signed the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act into Law. The GSA is headed by an Administrator who is appointed by the President and confirmed by Congress.

The Administrator of General Services oversees a federal agency of about 13,000 people and an annual budget of approximately $16 billion. The GSA Administrator heads one of three central management agencies in the federal government.

The current GSA Administrator Paul F. Prouty presides over the leading acquisition agency for the federal government. He is responsible for the management of more than one-fourth of the government’s total procurement dollars and influences the management of $500 billion in assets, including 8,600 government-owned or leased buildings. He is the steward of more than 480 historic properties and 208,000 vehicles.

The Obama administration is expected to boost its estimate of the federal deficit over the next decade by $2 trillion, a move likely to trigger political wrangling over who’s to blame and how harmful all the red ink will be.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget is expected to forecast $9 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years, up from a $7 trillion estimate earlier this year, according to White House officials who spoke last week on the condition of anonymity. The increase is largely due to lower-than-expected tax revenues as a result of the recession.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office will issue its own deficit forecasts Tuesday. The CBO estimated in March that the deficit for 2010-19 would total $9.1 trillion.