July 2017 - page 6

Both the House and Senate have passed their own versions of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Thee are, as always, differences in the two bills which will now have to be worked out in conference committee. The provision in the House version requiring the Defense Department to contract out 25 percent of its incurred cost audits in lieu of performing them in-house by DCAA (Defense Contract Audit Agency) is not in the Senate version (see 2018 NDAA Passes House). For the rest of this week, we will examine a few provisions that appear in the Senate version that are not in the House version.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Large Contractors May Need to Reimburse the Defense Department for the Cost of Bid Protests

Earlier today the House passed the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a wide margin; 344-81. Now, the Senate needs to act on its version. The House version calls for $696 billion in spending while the Senate version sits around $700 billion. Both spending proposals exceed the President’s $603 billion defense plan.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: 2018 NDAA Passes House – Now On to the Senate

No one has a good count on the number of Government contractors. By one estimate, over 50,000 companies contract with the Department of Defense and there are many Governmental agencies besides DoD. Whatever the number, there are a lot of Government contractors but relatively few of them have had to go through the process of actually negotiating a contract price under FAR Part 15 procedures, Contracting by Negotiations.

Source: PNWC’s Government Contracting Update: Be Prepared When You Go In To Negotiations With The Government