Digital Discourse / Archives for Mike Hettinger

Postal Service Files Exigent Rate Case

September 25, 2013 By

Following a meeting of the Postal Board of Governors today, the postal service announced it plans to file an exigent rate increase with the PRC (Postal Regulatory Commission) for approval.  We have been told the amount of the proposed exigent rate increase is 4.3% and will apply to all classes of mail. If approved by the PRC it would take effect January 26, 2014.  This increase would be in addition to the annual CPI increase of 1.6%, which will also take effect on January 26th. If the exigent filing is approved the total increase in January will be 5.9%.

SIIA/ABM is strongly opposed to the exigent rate increase and will be directly involved in efforts to defeat the exigent rate filing on behalf of our members. We will update you as more information is made available.  Below is more detail about how the exigent filing process works.

An exigent rate filing is a special rate increase request beyond the annual CPI increase.  It is allowed by law if the Postal Service has been affected by “extraordinary or exceptional circumstances.”  After the Postal Board of Governors approve the exigent filing as they did today, it is submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) for a 90-day review after which they approve or disapprove the filing.  During the 90 day review period the PRC will also question the Postal Service’s filing information to aid in their decision process.  This is an open rulemaking process and as a result the mailing industry and other are permitted to file comments with the PRC during the 90 day process. As a member of the Affordable Mail Alliance (AMA), we will file comments.

AMA was instrumental in defeating the 2010 exigent filing, of which ABM was a participant. ABM/SIIA and two members recently met with the PRC to better acquaint them with the concerns of our membership and the importance of predictable increases as provided by the current CPI increase structure. In addition, we informed the PRC of the results of the member survey we conducted earlier this year and how detrimental additional rate increases would be to the B-to-B periodical industry.

While we know this is not the outcome that we had hoped for, please know that SIIA / ABM will be working hard on behalf of all of our members against this rate increase.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.

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Filed Under: Policy

SIIA Alert: Government Shutdown Looming — How Government Contractors Should Prepare

September 20, 2013 By

With Congress and the President seemingly at loggerheads over federal spending, there is an increasing possibility that the federal government will shut down on October 1 when the funding for the current fiscal year expires.   While we’ve been down this road before, each of the last 3 years for example, prudent business planning suggests that government contractors should be preparing themselves in the event there is a shut down.

What’s the status?  Congress has failed to enact any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for FY 2014 and the current fiscal year funding is set to expire at midnight on October 1, meaning funding for the entire federal government is at stake.  On September 20, 2013 the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 15.  Also included in this legislation was language defunding the so-called Obamacare health care plan.  The Democrat-controlled Senate is expected to strip the language defunding Obamacare and send the bill back to the House.  This sets up a potential gridlock situation and it is unclear if either side is willing to budge.

Why does this matter?  As a government contractor you need to be prepared in the event of a shutdown, since funding for many if not all of your current contracts may be affected.  Your employees are reading the news and they know the potential and they want to know their leadership is making contingency plans.

What should you do?  OMB has sent a memo to government agencies telling them to prepare for a shutdown and prudent business planning suggests you need to be ready too.  Here’s a quick checklist of things you should be doing and thinking about related to a potential shutdown:

  1. Be Proactive:  Don’t sit back and let the rumors swirl, take charge of the situation within your company.
  2. Communicate:  Communicate honestly, early and often with your employees about what you know and what you expect will happen if the government shuts down.  Make sure your company speaks with “one voice.” This will keep misinformation (i.e. rumors of furloughs and layoffs) to a minimum.
  3. Understand Your Contracts:  Review your current contracts to understand which will be affected in the event of a shutdown and which will continue.  Projects funded by revolving funds for example won’t be affected.
  4. Gather Intelligence:  Gather as much intelligence as possible by talking to industry partners and trade associations and having your engagement managers talk to their contracting officers and COTRs, i.e. the client.
  5. Set Up a War Room:  Set up a formal process inside your company to monitor developments related to the potential shutdown, a “war room” if you will.  Be ready to kick it into high gear if a shutdown occurs.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed and hope that Congress and the President are able to work out an agreement that keeps the government open and operating beyond October 1, while preparing yourselves for a potential shutdown through effective communication with your employees and smart business planning. Contact me at mhettinger@siia.net or (202) 789-4456 with any questions.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.

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Filed Under: Government, PSIG, Software

SIIA Urges US Postal Service Board of Governors to Refrain from Exigent Rate Increase

September 19, 2013 By

In a letter yesterday, SIIA urged the US Postal Service’s Board of Governors to refrain from moving forward with an exigent rate increase on periodicals. SIIA sent the letter in response to signs that the board may increase the postal rate by 7-10% when it meets next on Sept. 24-25.

SIIA believes simply that there will not be any positive return from the filing of an exigent rate case. While there may be a short term increase in revenues, this action will force mailers in all classes of mail to take action to reduce their postage expenses.

Recently SIIA surveyed its members, to better understand how their mailing habits would be affected by postal rate increases. SIIA’s members publish more than 600 print periodical titles and mail about 800 million magazines and newsletters each year. SIIA and it’s newest division, ABM, represent about 15% of the Postal Service’s periodicals class.

The survey results support our overall position in opposition to an exigent increase. Two thirds of respondents said they would reduce mailed periodicals by an average of 11% if postal rates increased by 7.5%. If rates increased by 10%, nine out of 10 of our members say they would reduce mailed periodicals by about 13%. Even if rates increased by less than 7.5%, our members would still reduce their mailings. Since we mail in all classes of mail to support our periodicals, mail volume in other classes of mail would be reduced as well.

SIIA has found that in the long run, an exigent rate increase will reduce, if not eliminate, any increase in revenues. It is very likely that the lost mail volume will never return.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.

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Filed Under: Policy

Public Sector Innovation Roundup

September 19, 2013 By

Potential Government Shutdown Looms Large: With Congress back in town, the talk of a potential government shutdown has really picked up in the last few weeks. House Speaker Boehner put together a short term continuing resolution to fund the government through December 15th, with a companion resolution to defund Obamacare but was forced to pull it from the schedule amid concerns by some republicans that the Obamacare provision was not included in the bill itself. That puts the issue back to the drawing board with less than two weeks to go before the end of the fiscal year. It seems like the situation is changing daily or in some cases hourly as Speaker Boehner and other leaders in Congress try to find a way to avoid a shutdown while battling over Obamacare, spending cuts and the debt ceiling. Reuters has a good report from Wednesday on the latest plan.

NIST Recommends Not Using NSA-Influenced Standards: The National Institute for Standards and Technology is now strongly recommending against using encryption standards that leaked documents show were effectively weakened by the NSA. NIST has also now launched an effort to revise the standards, published in Special Publication 800-90A, 800-90B and 800-90C, by reopening them for comment. The original standards were published in 2006. FCW has a good report.

DOD to Mandate Move to Enterprise Email: DOD CIO Teri Takai, in a memo to component agencies on September 5th indicated that the time had come for them to stop running their own email systems and move to an enterprise environment. According to the memo, components have 120 days to draw up plans to migrate their current email to enterprise email. Prior to the memo, DOD agencies had been allowed to make their own determination as to whether or not they would move email to the department’s private cloud, operated by DISA. DOD has potentially more than two million email users. Here’s Takai’s memo.

Obama to Nominate New Deputy Director for Management: President Obama finally got around to announcing a new Deputy Director for Management at OMB, a position that has been filled in an acting capacity by Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel since May when Jeff Zients left the government. The nominee, Beth Cobert, comes to the Administration from McKinsey and Company where she has been for nearly 20 years. On another personnel note, Zients is already on his way back into government, being named as the replacement for Gene Sperling as Director of the National Economic Council. Here’s the latest on the Beth Cobert announcement via Federal Times.

New CIOs to be Nominated for DHS and FEMA: FCW is reporting that President Obama is set to name Luke McCormack, currently CIO at the Justice Department as the new CIO at DHS and Adrian Gardner, currently CIO at NASA Goddard as the CIO at FEMA. McCormack would be filling the spot left vacant earlier this year when Richard Spires left DHS amid some confusion over the reasons for his departure. Here’s the FCW report: http://fcw.com/articles/2013/09/17/mccormack-gardner-dhs-cio.aspx

GSA Official to be FTC CIO: In other personnel news, Bajinder Paul, currently Deputy Associate Administrator in GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies will be leaving GSA to become CIO at the FTC. A long time government technology official, Paul had previously been CIO at the OCC and Deputy CIO at HUD. Fedscoop has the scoop.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.

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Filed Under: PSIG

Postal Service Delays Decision on Exigent Rate Filing

September 6, 2013 By

Yesterday, the Postal Service Board of Governors postponed any action with respect to an exigent rate filing until at least their next scheduled meeting, which occurs at the end of September.  In an official statement released yesterday afternoon, the Postal Service said:

“The Postal Service Governors met today at a regularly scheduled Board meeting. As part of the agenda, the Governors considered pricing issues, including the possibility of filing for price adjustments. The Governors continue to listen to stakeholders and have postponed final pricing decisions until the next scheduled Board of Governors meeting, Sept. 24 – 25, 2013.”

One definite final pricing decision described in the statement will be approving the annual CPI increase, expected to be about 1.8%, to take effect January 26.

As we highlighted in our postal and legislative update on Aug. 22, the industry believed that there was a very good chance the Board of Governors would approve the exigent filing at the meeting  yesterday.  While we do not know that exact reasons for the delay, it appears from their statement that the Board of Governors was reacting to customer concerns about the impact of an exigent rate increase in delaying action. We also understand the Postmaster General recently has been working diligently to bring together both postal customers and postal labor union presidents to discuss working together on legislation.  Time will tell whether or not this activity will bring about new options for legislation, which would benefit both the USPS and customers, instead of the negative impact of an exigent rate filing. We will continue to work on this issue on behalf of our members.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

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Filed Under: Policy

Public Sector Innovation Roundup

September 5, 2013 By

White House Moving Forward on Open Data Initiative: According to a blog post earlier this week from Nick Sinai, the federal government’s Deputy Chief Technology Officer, the Obama Administration is moving forward with the open data initiative announced earlier this year and continues to seek the public’s input on how to improve transparency, what types on information should be released and how open data can enhance government services. The White House is accepting comments on this through September 23rd. See the full blog post on the Open Data Initiative website here.

IBM Issues Guide to Federal Acquisition: Earlier this week the IBM Center for the Business of Government released a report by Trevor Brown of the Ohio State University entitled A Guide for Agency Leaders on Federal Acquisition: Major Challenges Facing Government. The report is viewed as a how-to guide designed to assist government executives with understanding the federal procurement process, one of the most complex processes in the government and one that has put more than one agency leader in an uncomfortable position. The report aims to answer eight key questions about federal procurement, believing that a better understanding of the process is the key to a successful tenure for agency leadership. Read the full report here.

NARA Focused on Email Archiving: The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) launched a new initiative for email management known as Capstone. The goal of the program according to NARA is to make it easier for agencies to archive the millions of emails generated annually by federal employees. Capstone will help agencies meet the requirements of the OMB Managing Government Records Directive including complying with the December 2016 deadline. FedNewsRadio has a report.

Budget Uncertainty Hurting Feds and Contractors Alike: Rep. Gerry Connolly told “In Depth with Francis Rose” this week that the budget uncertainty, and the prospect of a short term continuing resolution, coupled with issues like the debt ceiling and the long term impact of sequestration is having a strongly negative impact on the federal government as well as contractors, as agencies hold back on making long term contract commitments. The result is an overall slowdown in federal investment and a general nervousness in the contracting community over what the next few months will bring. See the full report from FedNewsRadio here.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.

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Filed Under: PSIG Tagged With: , , ,

Public Sector Innovation Roundup

August 30, 2013 By

OASIS Protest Dropped: US Falcon, one of two companies that had protested the RFP for GSA’s $60 billion OASIS GWAC said this week that the issue on which the protest had been based — essentially how past performance would be evaluated for companies that had changed ownership — had been resolved and the protest withdraw. The other OASIS protest, filed by AAIC, was ordered to move ahead last week under the original schedule, when a GSA official rejected the Office of General Counsel’s motion to dismiss. FCW has a full report.

FedRAMP Adds Akamai Content Delivery to list of approved CSPs: FedRAMP announced this week that it had added another approved CSP to the FedRAMP repository, Akamai Content Delivery Services. This approval brings the number of FedRAMP approved CSPs to eight. Akamai’s globally distributed intelligent platform providing delivery benefits for all content types, including HTML, images, dynamic Web 2.0, SSL, live and on-demand streaming media is now available for agencies to leverage. Knowledge Consulting Group (KCG) acted as the 3PAO. More info.

Amazon to be major player in Interior cloud contract: While Amazon Web Services was not included as a prime contract holder in the recently awarded $10 billion foundation cloud hosting services contract at the Department of Interior they are still expected to be a major player. According to this report in FCW, AWS is part of the proposed contract offerings of no fewer than five of the 10 contract awardees, with two of the awardees — Aquilent and Smartronix — being premier AWS partners.

U.S. to hit debt ceiling in mid-October: The Department of Treasury announced this week that it had exhausted the extraordinary measures it has been using to delay hitting the debt ceiling and said that the Congress will need to increase the borrowing limit by mid-October or risk the U.S. government defaulting on its financial obligations. This sets up an expected fight between Congress and the Obama Administration over spending cuts and the need to increase the borrowing limit and will come quickly on the heels of Congress having to address the annual appropriations bills and/or the need for a Continuing Resolution to keep the government running past September 30th. This is sure to get interesting with Congress only in session for nine legislative days in September. Roll Call has a report.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG. Sign up for the Public Sector Innovation Roundup email newsletter for weekly updates.

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Filed Under: Policy, PSIG Tagged With: , , ,
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