Whereas the total impression of working below persevering with resolutions is troublesome to quantify throughout the Protection Division, a authorities watchdog discovered that stopgap funding measures have led to program delays, elevated prices, administrative burdens and operational challenges.
For the previous 5 a long time, the Pentagon has relied on momentary funding measures in the beginning of practically each fiscal 12 months — the division has operated below persevering with resolutions in all however 12 of the final 49 years. In eight of the previous 15 fiscal years, these persevering with resolutions lasted greater than three months.
The Authorities Accountability Workplace has beforehand examined the results of CRs on companies throughout the federal authorities, however in 2024, Congress directed GAO by way of a provision within the Senate report accompanying the annual protection coverage invoice to evaluate their impression on DoD operations and acquisition packages.
“Given the direction that we had in the provision, we selected a sample of operation and maintenance activities and acquisition programs that we determined were likely to be affected by CRs and that were aligned with DoD strategic priorities. Our goal was to provide illustrative examples of how DoD activities and programs were specifically affected by CRs and … that are critical to the national security mission,” Rashmi Agarwal, director within the Authorities Accountability Workplace’s protection capabilities and administration group, advised Federal Information Community.
Agarwal stated GAO surveyed about 74 acquisition packages — roughly half reported they skilled scheduling delays or monetary impacts. The remaining packages reported little or no impression, however the watchdog didn’t study the explanation these packages had been unaffected because it fell outdoors the scope of the overview.
Price will increase
Agarwal stated her group discovered that momentary funding can improve prices in a number of methods. For a number of the acquisition packages, persevering with resolutions have led to inserting smaller orders over the course of the 12 months, limiting their skill to safe decrease costs by way of bigger purchases.
Applications may also undergo from elevated prices attributable to inflation, adjustments in overseas trade charges, or distributors requiring extra time to complete work inside a compressed timeframe.
At Joint Base San Antonio, for instance, officers advised GAO that the fiscal 2024 persevering with decision greater than doubled the price of a services sustainment contract — the undertaking’s authentic estimate rose from $579,000 to roughly $1.45 million after full-year funding was handed.
Officers additionally confronted larger prices for the elimination and set up of heating, air flow, and air con methods — a contractor initially quoted the undertaking at about $400,000. When the work was rebid later within the 12 months attributable to delays brought on by a unbroken decision, the revised quote was greater than $78,000 larger.
Delays
Navy officers advised GAO that persevering with resolutions led to delays in awarding Navy ship upkeep contracts since during times of constrained funding they needed to prioritize probably the most pressing wants. Officers stated obtainable sources would usually go towards ships already present process upkeep, ships nearing deployment or these requiring emergency repairs.
“Ships with maintenance needs that were not prioritized during a CR face potential delays in preparations for future maintenance work, such as equipment purchases or planning and design efforts, while waiting for final full-year appropriations. These delays further contribute to existing delays related to previously deferred maintenance,” the GAO report reads.
In the meantime, Military officers advised GAO that work at upkeep depots was delayed since depots can solely settle for a lot upkeep work in a given 12 months attributable to restricted capability and persevering with resolutions gradual the Military’s skill to ship tools for repairs.
Uneven spending over the course of the fiscal 12 months
Since CRs create uncertainty for federal companies about when they’ll obtain ultimate appropriations and the way a lot funding finally will probably be obtainable, Agarwal stated they discovered that spending is usually extra restricted initially of the fiscal 12 months. However as soon as full-year appropriations are enacted, companies are dashing to obligate remaining funds inside a compressed timeframe.
“When that happens, we found that activities and programs can still face constraints in being able to spend the funding that they have available. For example, the contracting offices may not have the capacity to solicit and award all the contracts that need to be awarded, or vendors may not have the capacity to complete all the projects that need to be completed,” Agarwal stated.
Analysis and growth and procurement accounts are particularly affected by longer persevering with resolutions.
Workforce productiveness
Persevering with resolutions have additionally created administrative burdens and inefficiencies for DoD personnel who must repeatedly modify spending plans attributable to CRs.
Officers from the F-35 program, for instance, estimated that about 20% of their monetary administration employees’s time is spent adjusting budgets to handle by way of CR constraints.
Whereas GAO didn’t problem any suggestions, a separate Protection Division Inspector Normal report discovered that bettering processes to trace the precise impacts of constant resolutions would assist the division higher talk the implications of CRs to Congress — the IG beneficial growing a standardized methodology for monitoring the precise impacts of CRs, notably for acquisition packages.
“I think if the department takes action on the DoD inspector general’s recommendation, they are going to obtain that data, whether it’s cost data in terms of the contracts that got extended as a result of CRs, for example. But I think if they take action on that recommendation that would enable a better assessment of the CR-related impacts,” Agarwal stated.
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