Horizon Cutting-room Links: Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Today is Wednesday, 19 March 2025. Federal agencies in the Washington, DC area are Open. Employees are expected to begin the workday on time. Normal operating procedures are in effect. Clear, with a low around 44. Southeast wind around 2 mph.

"No More Minimum Wage Obligations Shifts Pricing Strategies for Service and Construction Contractors," PileroMazza

"Effective immediately, contractors are no longer bound by EO 14026’s minimum wage requirements. This means that most service and construction contractors may revert employee pay to the applicable wage determination rates under their contracts. EO 14026, which until Friday applied to contracts covered by the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon Act, raised minimum wages for government contractors each year by the consumer price index. Most recently, on January 1, 2025, the EO increased the hourly wage rate to $17.75. Assuming certain criteria were met, contractors were also entitled to recoup the cost of the increased wages and associated labor costs by submitting a price adjustment request to the government.

"Of important note, President Trump’s EO does not revoke EO 13658 (also titled Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors), which was issued by President Obama and imposes a lower minimum wage requirement. That minimum wage is currently $13.30."

"Trump Taps Republic Airways CEO to Lead FAA," Skift

"President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is nominating Bryan Bedford, the CEO of Republic Airways, to lead the Federal Aviation Administration. ... The role requires a Senate confirmation."

"Bedford’s nomination received praise from the airline industry. Nicholas Calio, the president of trade group Airlines for America, said Trump made a'“superb choice in nominating Bedford'."

"Congress sets Pentagon research, development, test and evaluation spending at $141B," Defense Scoop

"The legislation, which funds the government through the remainder of the fiscal year, sets spending levels for Pentagon RDT&E accounts in 2025 at about $141 billion — approximately $2 billion less than the Biden administration had requested and $7 billion less than the department received for those activities in fiscal 2024.

"The Army’s share of the RDT&E funding is approximately $14.3 billion, the Navy’s $26 billion, the Air Force’s $46.8 billion and the Space Force’s $18.6 billion. Defensewide RDT&E accounts will get $35.2 billion, and nearly $350 million will go toward operational test and evaluation, according to the legislation."

"D.C.-area contractors navigate DEI elimination, contract losses in shifting federal landscape," Washington Business Journal

"Of this small sample of [500] companies, four said they have already had to reduce staff as a result of the Trump administration’s recent executive orders — specifically due to the drastic downsizing of federal government agencies ongoing through the fledgling Department of Government Efficiency."

"The issue of DEI is more complex. Six of the 10 companies said they never had formal DEI programs to begin with, only informal initiatives and guidance. One did have a program they said has been eliminated since President Donald Trump’s executive order to do so. Another said they nixed their formal program but still retain its values in their decision-making. And two of the anonymous companies said they still retained their DEI programs in spite of the order."