Obama to Announce Discretionary Spending Freeze – Dollars Available to contractors Will Shrink Substantially

January 26th, 2010 | Posted by Lexy Kessler

President Obama is expected to announce a three-year freeze on non-security, discretionary spending in the State of the Union address this Wednesday, January 26th, according to CNN. The three-year freeze will hold discretionary spending at the current level of $447 billion, about one-sixth of the federal budget, with a goal of creating savings of $250 billion.  The freeze does not include defense, homeland security or the so-called “entitlement” programs such as Medicaid and Social Security.  Congress will be able to shift funding from one program to another within that amount.

Aronson predicted such a drop in discretionary spending in our January 15th, New Year’s Resolution’s post: Resolution #10: We Will Prepare for the Inevitable Government Contracting Economic Crisis. Combined with the federal deficit, a drop in discretionary funding  means an economic crisis in the government contracting industry.  As noted previously, it is critical that you start to develop a contingency plan now as very few areas will be immune from the shrinking pool of money. See the key areas to incorporate in your contingency plan here. Aronson’s Government Contracts Services Group can provide  information and assistance succeeding in these tough times – contact Lexy Kessler, Lead Officer via email or at 301.231.6218.

Tags: Congress, contingency, crisis, discretionary spending, economic, entitlement, freeze, Medicaid, Social Security, State of the Union

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Federal Agency Spending, New Year's Resolutions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

76 view(s)