Government Shutdown Summary

The solution the OMB proposed is to ensure that there are clear guidelines established to ensure the critical functions are performed by federal employees, regardless if the function is determined to be inherently governmental. Assuming the statistics in the article are true, some of the major implications of the Federal Governments increased reliance of government contractors is first and foremost, using government contractors to perform inherently governmental functions, as it is not always easy to monitor and many times it is not always clear to what functions are actually inherently governmental. Another issue includes, and is increasingly common, is the increased reliance on contractors who become so involved with programs that there is no way to replace them due to the institutional knowledge they have of an agency and/or agency program. When considering the future of the governmental workforce, the increased reliance on the private sector could also inhibit the growth of the federal workforce. With budget cuts and stagnant wages, the government is not seen as a popular workplace choice with the millennial generation; this coupled this with the aging government workforce retiring in the coming years, there will not be enough employees being hired to take their place, causing a viscous cycle increasing the reliance on contracted assistance. Even today, the government is beginning to see the effects of this cycle with the acquisition workforce, causing for a loss of agency knowledge and manpower with the ever changing federal acquisition laws and regulations this will become quite a feat in feature years. Arguably, some also say that government contractors do not have a vested interest in the agency mission or the federal government in general; this often can lead to contractors looking out for their company vs. the welfare of the

In his 1960 Farewell Address, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower brought attention to the “military-industrial complex”, a term that is used to describe how the government uses private industry to meet its various demands during war or peace. Since World War I and World War II, the United States has witnessed a greater connection between the public and private sectors as private industry pumped out the goods to keep the government and country going. Similarly, there were changes on the battlefield as now private contractors became common sights. Eventually, the government would call on private contractors to provide aid on the military battlefield and even fight in some instances. The use of non-governmental workers on the battlefield

Zakheim and Kadish explain two decades ago, there were more than twenty prime contractors competing for defense contracts while today the government relies on just six contractors to build its defense systems. Zakheim and Kadish state, “The system largely forgoes competition on price, delivery and performance and replaces it with a kind of “design bureau” competition”. The report explains that firms such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin have operated in collaboration on several projects such as the Air Force’s next generation bomber (Zakheim & Kadish, 2008). Collaboration of this nature suggests cooperative equilibrium between the firms to enhance their mutual payoff of outbidding competitors. With the defense market on the downturn pending major budget cuts over the next several years, more collaboration strategies are possible for firms to remain competitive. The existing procurement system encourages bargaining among the government and bidding firms. When budgets are allocated generously, demand is high and firms can set their prices higher. Budget cuts decrease demand and increase bargaining between buyer and seller. Security Industry reports budget deficits subject contracts to greater

Although reducing costs and improving services have been cited as the most important reasons services are privatized by agencies, contracting out offers the attractiveness of hiring a contract employee over a public employee. This occurs because of the apparent advantages offered by such options (Dilger et al. 23). Some advantages of hiring a contract employee over a civil servant are as follows:

The United States government is the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world. Even during times of economic hardship, the US continues to dump billions into the private sector. The federal procurement spending rate of growth has surpassed the rate of U.S. inflation every year, since 2000. With annual federal procurement budgets of more than $400 billion, it is no surprise that the competition for government contracts has increased tremendously. Consequently, more and more companies are trying to get a piece of the action. When these companies adhere to all of the required regulations and statutes, they expect their proposals to be evaluated and the contract awarded in

4. An article by Leslie Kaufman and John McCormick, titled “Year of the Employee,” that appeared in the July 2, 1998, issue of Newsweek on pages 38-41.

This article approaches the idea that republican senators like Ted Cruz were to blame for the shutdown and that they took the blame. This journal article also mentions that the “shutdown schemes” that were staged by Republicans and the Tea Party did not work out as they had planned. They claim the shutdown has an adverse effect on “public services, the economy and confidence in the ‘full faith and credit of the United States’”. If seems as though due the shutdown the republican party realized that they had lost the fight against the then majority ruled democrat congress, as opposed to the now majority of republicans having seats in congress. I will be using this article to evaluate how the Grand Old Party took the blame and agreed this was

Shadowbosses focuses primarily on Government employee unions and the negative effects that they have on the state and national levels of government in addition to the extra burden they create for taxpayers. Mallory Factor goes into depth about what the government employee unions are, what Shadowbosses are and who they are for America, the effects of the unions on the government, the benefits of right-to-work, and the massive amount of money the unions collect.

According to NBC News’ article, “Sorry, we’re closed: Government shutdown ripples across the country,” published on October 1, 2013, written by Matthew DeLuca, it describes how many of the general population were affected when Congress members failed to reach a consensus regarding the government’s finances and budgets. The Senate rejected laws proposed by the Republican portion of the House, which led to delays in the cancellation of the Affordable Care Act. This shutdown lasted sixteen days, which angered many people. People were upset over the fact while they were going to work, the government workers were not showing up for work. During the shutdown, many Senators’ offices were closed, meaning they weren’t able to respond to requests from

Brockmann, Erich. (1996, May). Removing the paradox of conflict from group decisions. Academy of Management Executive. v10n2, p. 61-62.

This study deals with the impact of furloughs on non-furloughed federal worker's job satisfaction levels. Furlough is a budgetary problem that impact government programs and services by increasing workloads and absenteeism to the identified non-furloughed federal workers. The threat of furlough and furlough itself is a problem to the organizations in the form of poor performances; increase work stressors and emotional strain. The problem to be addressed is the negative impact of furloughs on non-furloughed federal workers, predominately GS employees and excepted contractors. The purpose of this study is to examine the negative impact of furlough on the job satisfaction levels of the identified non-furloughed federal workers. To help non-furloughed

While operating at such a large budget, there is plenty of times where disgraceful purchases “fall through the cracks”. Most citizens have heard about the “procurement recklessness” of the DoD during the Reagan administration. It was reported that the Pentagon had irresponsibly spent defense money on $400 hammers and $600 toilet seats. The public was outraged. It is very hard to justify increasing defense budgets when the appropriated dollars are apparently wasted. Move to 2003, President Bush’s administration came under attack for apparently losing track of $1 Trillion worth of spending. The GAO reported that the army alone had 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units that could not be accounted for (GAO 2003). When asked to complete an audit, the Pentagon proved unable to do so. The response was to create a system to streamline financial systems. The new program, called Corporate Information Management (CIM) system was implemented at a cost of $20 billion of taxpayer money. Eventually the program was scrapped, after spending roughly $18 billion. Fast forward to 2007, sisters Darlene and Charlene Corley have doing business with the DoD for six years through their company C&D Distributors out of Lexington, South Carolina. Shortly after their first order in 2001, the two sisters found a blemish in the government’s buying system. Any product bought for Iraq or Afghanistan was marked priority and paid for automatically. The Corleys quickly took advantage. If the DoD bought two washers at 19 cents apiece, C&D would charge them $998,798 for shipping. Carefully dodging the $1 million threshold that would have alerted higher purchasing authorities, the sisters scammed the DoD for six years. Eventually, it came to light that the DoD had paid $20.5 million for products that should have only cost $68,000 (Washington

Observers do not need to look far for the signs of a military-industrial complex that has become too powerful and involved in politics. The Army has repeatedly attempted to halt the production and spending on new tanks. The Air Force has spent almost $400 billion on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, nearly double the initial estimate. If the relationship between civilian and military leaders is to be mended, leadership decisions must not be influenced by the military-industrial

The article talks about the influence of lobbyist on congress, and the big players like Lockheed in taking billions in tax payer money for unessential military contracts. The author also stresses former president Eisenhower’s words about a strong military complex taking away liberty from the people. The influence is on congress from 100 contractors and their lobbyist on our politicians for appropriating contracts in the billions.

1. Assess proposals to institute pay for performance in federal agencies. What are the consequences of adopting new labor–management procedures at a time when the United States is deeply involved with homeland security and other national security concerns?