July 16

The White House directed agencies last week to pay prime contractors faster — to get payments to small-business subcontractors faster and help them grow.

“Such acceleration helps to improve cash flow for small businesses, increases liquidity, unlocks capital for the purposes of investment and growth, and increases small business participation in federal contracting,” OMB acting director Jeff Zients wrote.

OMB directed agencies to speed up payments to small-business prime contractors from 30 days to 15 days last year. The White House issued five executive actions last week to spur small businesses’ growth.

The department’s cloud service broker

DISA will serve as the department’s cloud service broker, which means all DoD elements must acquire government or industry-provided cloud services through DISA, according to a memo from DoD chief information officer Teresa Takai released last week. DISA will manage the use, performance and delivery of cloud services and negotiate contracts between cloud service providers and DoD users. DoD’s Cloud Computing Strategy, as well released last week, incentivizes DoD elements to use shared cloud services and training acquisition professionals to procure cloud technologies. It as well calls for cloud hardware and software to be incorporated in DoD data centers.

NTEU President Colleen Kelley sent LePage a letter July 11 demanding a full apology and calling the insult “over-the-top political rhetoric.” She as well warned that such comments “can as well lead to violent attacks on these workers.”