DHS plans $8B spending spree by Sept. 30

The Homeland Security Department expects to obligate more than half of its annual contracting budget in the remaining four and a half months of the current fiscal year, a senior official said May 15.

About $6 billion has been obligated to date in fiscal 2012, and the total obligation by the end of the fiscal year is expected to be about $14 billion, said Kevin Boshears, director of the DHS Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. He spoke at an industry conference.

“If patterns hold, we have about $8 billion to go,” Boshears said.

Those pending contracts run the gamut from information technology to security services to office supplies, he added.

However, with the uncertainty about budgets and sequestration next year, the department is anticipating either flat or dipping budgets, Boshears added.

“Internally, we are thinking it is flat or a little less,” he said. “That is not official.

The high-profile EAGLE II IT contract will be awarded "soon," Boshears said. Meanwhile, some of the original EAGLE contracts will continue, concurrent with EAGLE II, he added.

“They are going to co-exist. EAGLE I still has life, and EAGLE II will be available as soon as it is awarded,” Boshears said.

The conference was sponsored by the Small and Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum.