While our executive and legislative branches are at a stalemate over budget priorities non-essential government actives will not be funded and as January 20th will usher in a new demographic break-out of party partisans; it is likely this issue will not be resolved quickly.
How will the shutdown affect you, the government contractor and your employees? The agencies where funding for FY19 has already been passed, and therefore not affected by a shutdown, include the Departments of Defense, Labor, Energy, Health and Human Services, Education, Veterans Affairs and the legislative branch. Your contracts will continue forward, If you have any contracts with agencies controlling discretionary spending — VA, DOD, HHS, Labor, Education or Labor. You will receive payments for work completed during this time and no contracts should be cancelled.
Agencies impacted during the shutdown include the Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture, Interior, Treasury, State, Housing and Urban Development, NASA, Transportation, Commerce, and Justice. If you have contracts with these agencies, unless your contract functions are essential, you are unlikely permitted to continue work and you and your employees will not receive compensation for this downtime. Essential personnel, such as airport security, will be permitted to work, however compensation for work may not occur until the government re-opens.
If you have any outstanding invoices for non-essential work, you will not likely receive payment until the government re-opens. If this effects your business or you feel the issues of the stalemate or more important than your contracts, contact you representatives and share your opinion (technically, they work for us):
US House of Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
US Senate:https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
If you have any questions on future or current government contracting opportunities, contact Coley for support.
You’ve left off the 60,000 contractors who work for NASA – the other agency that is currently closed – on your list. Please don’t forget us!!!
We are a SAM registered contractor and are still receiving solicitations daily to bid on for the US government. I am hesitant to entertain any of these RFQ’s because even if the contracts are honored eventually, our supply chain insists on payment according to terms and we refuse to put our company’s cashflow on the line while the government’s executive fights for his “wall”.
You have a valid point and concern. The Government shutdown had further consequences and implication than just the furloughed employees. Each solicitation should be reviewed and vetted to ensure it means your companies priorities and culture. Essential workforce and purchases still go forward, so it would be important to determine if the bid you are reviewing is one that is essential to the security or support of security of our nation.