Drivers
- The Biden administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 defense budget request was anticipated to ask for an additional $10 billion beyond the congressional appropriations for FY 2021, an indicator of the new President’s continued support for our nation’s defense.
- The FY 2022 budget request was the first that was not subject to federal spending caps in nearly a decade. The request also eliminated the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget account.
- Reliance on the defense industry continued to play a major role in military readiness with increasing pressures to increase small business participation at both the prime and subcontract levels.
Drawbacks
- In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainly continued to impact large face-to-face gatherings between defense and private sector contractors. The Rock Island Arsenal leadership announced that the annual advanced planning briefing to industry and small business conference will be held virtually in late second quarter 2021.
- While adoption of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) remained slow, the Department of Defense conducted an internal assessment amidst industry concerns surrounding costs and challenges in meeting requirements.
