4 major acquisition changes GSA is pursuing in 2024

The General Services Administration is driving what it hopes to be a final nail in the LPTA coffin. As one of three major acquisition policy changes GSA is seeking over the next year, the proposal would remove language in the schedules program that many blame for why agencies use lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA) still too often. Jeff Koses, GSA’s senior procurement executive, said the legislative change would bring clarity to the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984. Jeff Koses is the senior procurement executive at GSA. “Over the last…

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Joe Biden Isn’t Popular. That Might Not Matter in 2024.

By almost any historic yardstick, President Joe Biden is beginning the reelection campaign he formally announced today in a vulnerable position. His job-approval rating has consistently come in at 45 percent or less; in several recent high-quality national polls, it has dipped closer to 40 percent. In surveys, three-fourths or more of Americans routinely express dissatisfaction with the economy. And a majority of adults have repeatedly said that they do not want him to seek a second term; that figure rose to 70 percent (including just more than half of…

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OPM expects busy Open Season standing up USPS health insurance marketplace in 2024

The Office of Personnel Management expects to receive a much higher volume of calls during next year’s Open Season. That’s because a Postal Service reform bill signed into law in 2022 is moving postal employees and retirees into a different health insurance marketplace from the rest of the federal workforce, starting in January 2025. OPM Director Kiran Ahuja told members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee earlier this month that the agency is on track to create a standalone Postal Service Health Benefits Program. “It’s a huge effort, it’s…

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Federal IT spending in 2024 request up by 13% in part thanks to cyber, CX plans

The White House plans to ask Congress for $ 74 billion in federal technology spending for civilian agencies in fiscal 2024. What is significant about that number isn’t the fact it’s a 13% increase over the 2023 request, rather it’s the specific detail the Office of Management and Budget lays out for what that increase will go toward. The most obvious breakdown is in cybersecurity spending. The Biden administration wants to increase spending to secure federal networks, applications and data to $ 12.7 billion, a 13% increase over the prior…

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8 Things to Know About Biden’s Fiscal 2024 Budget, From Bad to Worse

When discussing budgets, President Joe Biden often uses a quote that he attributes to his father: “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget—and I’ll tell you what you value.” If the administration’s latest budget is any indication, Biden doesn’t value America’s future. 1) More Spending and Debt A president’s budget is a request to Congress and can be thought of as a wish list rather than an all-or-nothing demand. Administrations typically lay out an ambitious policy agenda that’s unlikely to happen. Incredibly, even the Biden administration’s wish…

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Republicans’ 2024 Magical Thinking

Press them hard enough, and most Republican officials—even the ones with MAGA hats in their closets and Mar-a-Lago selfies in their Twitter avatar—will privately admit that Donald Trump has become a problem. He’s presided over three abysmal election cycles since he took office, he is more unstable than ever, and yet he returned to the campaign trail this past weekend, declaring that he is “angry” and determined to win the  GOP presidential nomination again in 2024. Aside from his most blinkered loyalists, virtually everyone in the party agrees: It’s time…

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