Venable partner John Cooney was quoted in an October 2, 2015 Government Executive article on the continuing resolution that helped avoid a government shutdown last week. President Obama signed the temporary measure to keep government agencies funded for another 10 weeks at their fiscal 2015 levels while Congress works on a longer-term budget.
"Under a CR, an agency becomes very conservative," said Cooney. "It does not want to have spent down all of its funds just to find out Congress won’t appropriate the amount the agency expected." Cooney added that stopgap funding forces agencies to carry a resources reserve to plan for contingencies making it difficult for them to plan spending over the course of a year.
Among those negatively affected by the ongoing budget stalemate are contractors. With agencies postponing bids for new contracts and delaying the renewal of existing ones, contractors are uncertain how to plan their upcoming fiscal year, according to Cooney.