Contractors are also combing through the House and Senate defense authorization bills

The defense authorization bills, while contentious, would do a lot for contractors; from inflation relief to easing greenhouse gas emissions reporting. For a summary,  Federal Drive Host Tom Temin spoke with Haynes Boone procurement attorney Dan Ramish. Interview Transcript:  Tom Temin The defense authorization bills, while contentious, would do a lot for contractors from inflation relief to easing greenhouse gas emissions reporting. We get a summary from Haynes Boone procurement attorney Dan Ramish. And I guess, Dan, we should begin by noting, even though the House and the Senate have…

Read More...

House Republicans push through defense bill limiting abortion access and halting diversity efforts

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed a sweeping defense bill Friday that provides an expected 5.2% pay raise for service members but strays from traditional military policy with Republicans add-ons blocking abortion coverage, diversity initiatives at the Pentagon and transgender care that deeply divided the chamber. Democrats voted against the package, which had sailed out of the House Armed Services Committee on an almost unanimous vote weeks ago before being loaded with the GOP priorities during a heated late-night floor debate this week. The final vote was 219-210, with four…

Read More...

Firefighters get what they want in the new Defense Authorization law

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. Like much of the legislation enacted in the past couple of years, the National Defense Authorization Act has something for everybody. That includes the nation’s federal and military firefighters. For more, the Federal Drive turned to the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Edward Kelly. Interview transcript: Tom Temin Let’s just establish that the NDAA mainly concerned federal firefighters, military firefighters, but they are also represented by your union. Edward…

Read More...

Defense authorization bill comes in for a landing

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Federal Drive’s daily audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne. It will have things to love and hate, but it looks like the National Defense Authorization Bill will make it to passage in the remainder of the 117th Congress. But what about Friday’s government funding deadline? The Federal Drive with Tom Temin gets the latest from Loren Duggan, Bloomberg Government deputy news director. Interview transcript: Tom Temin: There seemed to be last minute progress last week in the House side on NDAA. And…

Read More...

Defense officials say a year-long continuing resolution would be ‘The Bad Place’

With no solid prospects for passage of the 2023 federal budget, the Department of Defense wants lawmakers to know just how bad life will be if they have to function for a full year on a continuing resolution (CR) instead of a real budget. “DoD has never lived with a year-long CR. So there’s probably some levels of badness we haven’t fully explored because we haven’t had to live it yet,” said Mike McCord, DoD undersecretary of defense and comptroller at the Professional Services Council Federal Market Forecast Conference on…

Read More...

Senate appropriators propose to repeal Hyde, add tens of billions to Defense budget

Senate appropriators proposed last week an end to a four-decade-old provision that restricts the government from funding abortions and would expand reproductive care for military service members and federal employees. The proposal is part of a set of bills to fund the government through fiscal 2023, which includes $ 850 billion for national security when taking into account the Defense appropriations bill, military construction spending and some military-related Energy Department funds. That number is well over the Biden administration’s $ 813 billion request for national security and outpaces the House…

Read More...