LOOKS LIKE FEDS WILL HAVE MONEY THROUGH (MOST OF) APRIL

After considerable drama, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution this weekend that will keep the government open until April 28th of next year.  This is a compromise between original plans that called for a CR through March and Senate Republicans who last week floated the possibility of a CR till the end of May.  DOD leaders assailed the idea of operating under a CR for 2/3’rds of the fiscal year and helped scale back its scope.  The CR will fund all agencies except VA (who already have their FY’17 money) at a pro-rated level equal to FY’16 spending.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that contractors will have to work hard with customers to scope projects as part of an existing project or “logical follow-on” in order to get movement on anything that might otherwise be classified as new prior to the end of April.  Absent a good argument and/or a willing customer all projects classified as “new spending” will have to wait until at least May.  It is highly unlikely that the spending issue will be resolved before the April 28th deadline.  The Senate, for one thing, will have a slew of new appointees to vet.  What happens after the 28th is totally unknown at this time.