Late Fed Budget Leading to a Fiscal Year End Rush

With a little over two months left in the government fiscal year and billions of dollars left in agencies pockets, it doesn’t take a genius to tell you that there is going to be quite a bit of contract spending coming up shortly. Given that agencies often spend between 1/3 and 1/2 of contract obligations in the 4th quarter, spending rushes are nothing new, but certain conditions will make it a little more aggressive than usual.

Federal Budget 2018Thanks to the Omnibus spending bill not being finalized until March 23 this year (over six months late), agencies will need to scramble to spend increases that were nearly across the board, notably with $80 billion extra in the defense budget and $63 billion extra in the civilian budget. The gap is most notable on the civilian side, with to-date spending at roughly 6% less than it was last year while there is a 12% larger budget. This is most likely due to civilian agencies expecting President Trump to push budget cuts, but in fact received the opposite.

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