March 29, 2024

Trump Finds Opposition to Foreign Aid Cuts

Opposition to Foreign Aid Cuts James Mattis

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the Internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Morning Coffee logoeconomic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

Now is not the time to slash US foreign aid, more than 120 retired generals and admirals said in a letter to lawmakers, while citing past comments from DefSec James Mattis to buttress their case. Mattis said while commander of US Central Command, “If you don’t fully fund the State Department, then I need to buy more ammunition,” reports The Washington Post.

President Donald Trump is taking the first major step toward putting together a federal budget proposal, asking federal agencies to draft plans to hike military spending and cut back other domestic programs — while making no changes to major entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare. Trump will propose “dollar for dollar cuts” elsewhere, reports politico.com. The reaction to the president’s budget from experts has been cautious. “If the increases in defense are paid for by cuts in non-defense, then I think this proposal is more symbolic than anything,” Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told Breaking Defense.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un executed at least five senior officials in that country’s Ministry of State Security using anti-aircraft guns, the head of South Korea’s intelligence services says, reports Fox News. They were executed for false reporting to Mr. Kim amid allegations that the government had ordered the killing of Kim’s half-brother in Malaysia.

The first week of the campaign for western Mosul started with rapid territorial gains for the government, reports the LA Times. Iraqi troops, backed by US special forces and coalition warplanes, swept through lightly defended villages, tightening the noose on Islamic State’s last redoubt in the city. But as the terrain has shifted from the desert to the urban, the pace has slowed and the casualties have mounted, suggesting militants will not be routed without a fierce fight.

Navy officials released the identity of a sailor shot inside a hangar at Naval Air Station Oceana, VA, after he crashed his vehicle through the base’s back gate. Information Systems Technician Seaman Robert Colton Wright later died from those wounds, reports Navy Times. The incident apparently began with a hit-and-run incident near the base after which Wright’s car was being sought by Virginia Beach Police in connection with the incident.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has emphasized that reunions are an important tool in curbing suicides, and now the Corps has launched a website to help currently serving Marines and veterans keep connected. The “Year of the Reunion” website is meant to help Marines organize reunions and announce upcoming events, reports Marine Corps Times.

Intelligent Aerospace reports the Navy’s anti-submarine warfare experts at Naval Air Systems Command are asking engineers at the Boeing to upgrade the sonar digital signal processing system in the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.

SpaceX plans to send two passengers, space tourists, on a trip around the moon next year, space.com reports. The five-day voyage would loop around the moon, skimming above the lunar surface at the closest point and flying out up to 400,000 miles from Earth at the farthest point.

A study by the National Defense University found that a growing number of military personnel are posting about political views on social media, Military Times reports.

Glock has filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Army’s recent awarding of a new pistol contract with Sig Sauer, Army Times reports.

Was tweeting the culprit? Accountant Brian Cullinan, one of two people knowing the Oscar winners, had been tweeting backstage shortly before he gave presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope for the movie industry’s Best Picture award on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Contracts:

Technology Service Corp., Silver Spring, Maryland, has been awarded an $11,820,368 modification (P00002) to previously awarded contract FA8650-16-C-9205 for Rapid Reaction Technologies and Systems/Support Jammer Cueing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) III effort. Contractor will develop technologies they have established under previous and current SBIR Phase I and II contracts. Work will be performed at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, and is expected to be complete by Nov. 24, 2017. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $11,820,368 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity.

EA-Baker JV, Hunt Valley, Maryland, was awarded a $90,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect-engineering fuel systems leak detection services in support of the Army Corps of Engineers in executing Defense Logistics Agency-Energy leak detection program locations worldwide. Bids were solicited via the Internet with five received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order; with an estimated completion date of Aug. 28, 2022. US Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, is the contracting activity (W9128F-17-D-0001).

URS Federal Services Inc., Germantown, Maryland, was awarded a $29,849,059 modification (000304) to contract W52P1J-12-G-0028 for an undefinitized change order to the Army Prepositioned Stock-5 Kuwait and Qatar requirements, which will be negotiated and funded at a later date. Work will be performed in Kuwait and Qatar with an estimated completion date of Jan. 2, 2018. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in an amount to be determined were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity.

Northrop Grumman, Herndon, Virginia, was awarded a $19,654,471 modification (P00007) to contract W31P4Q-16-C-0063 for the exercise of option period two of the sole-source requirement, for sustainment of ongoing contingency operations. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama; Afghanistan; and Egypt with an estimated completion date of Sept. 2, 2017. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Army) funds in the amount of $19,654,471 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, is the contracting activity.

ACE Maintenance & Services Inc., Austin, Texas, is being awarded a $15,249,529 modification under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N40080-15-D-0305) to exercise option year two for the janitorial services at Naval Support Activity Bethesda. The work to be performed provides for all management supervision, labor hours, training, equipment and supplies necessary to perform base janitorial services. After award of this option, the total cumulative contract value will be $44,665,841. Work will be performed in Bethesda, Maryland, and work is expected to be completed February 2018. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Navy); Navy working capital funds; and fiscal 2017 defense health program funds in the amount of $15,249,529 for recurring work will be obligated on individual task orders issued during the option period. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity.

HP Enterprise Services LLC, Herndon, Virginia, is being awarded a $41,695,540 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for Chief of Naval Operations Navy Selection and Classification office to provide technical support and engineering services for enlisted force management systems and selection and classification standards and policies. The contract will include a five-year ordering period. Work will be performed in Plano, Texas (70 percent); Arlington, Virginia (20 percent); and Millington, Tennessee (10 percent), and the ordering period of the contract is expected to be completed by February 2022. Fiscal 2017 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $100,000 will be obligated at the time of award and funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with the solicitation posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, with two offers received. Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00189-17-D-Z016).

AECOM, San Antonio, Texas (FA8903-17-D-0035); AMEC Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure Inc., Blue Bell, Pennsylvania (FA8903-17-D-0036); CB&I Federal Services LLC (CBI), Alexandria, Virginia (FA8903-17-D-0037); CDM/CAPE, JV, Boston, Massachusetts (FA8903-17-D-0038); Contrack ECC LLC, Burlingame, California (FA8903-17-D-0039); Custom Mechanical Systems Corp., Bargersville, Indiana (FA8903-17-D-0040); Gilbane Federal, Concord, California (FA8903-17-D-0041); Johnson Controls Federal Systems/Versar, Springfield, Virginia (FA8903-17-D-0042); Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc., Arlington, Virginia (FA8903-17-D-0043); Perini Management Services Inc., Framingham, Massachusetts (FA8903-17-D-0044); and Portico Services LLC, Manassas, Virginia (FA8903-17-D-0045); have been awarded a combined $950,000,000 multi-award, firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. Contractors will compete for design, construction, and engineering activities encompassing a full range of methods and technologies supporting activities necessary to design and construct new facilities and infrastructure, repair and renovate or restore existing facilities and infrastructure. Project locations will be determined in delivery orders with locations outside the US to include remote and austere sites or high risk contingency sites. Work is expected to be complete by Feb. 28, 2022. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with 13 offers received. Funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders. The 772nd Enterprise Sourcing Squadron, Joint Base Lackland – San Antonio, Texas, is the contracting activity.

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