Who wins and loses in fiscal 2014 spending?

Deltek’s “Clarity” highlights event Wednesday morning was filled with market snapshots, talk of sequestration and fiscal 2014 predictions.

During one of the presentations, Deltek vice president, research, Kevin Plexico spoke of 2014 versus 2013 in terms of discretionary spending, which is sure to impact contractors.

“Discretionary budget includes salaries of government employees, it includes many grant programs, but obviously it ultimately includes money that is paid to contractors,” Plexico said. “So this is the key budget you have to look at to understand how an agency’s budget might be affected from a contracting point of view.”

Plexico began with the winners, 13 agencies with a total of $14.5 billion in increased spending:

• Health and Human Services -- $6.3 billion, 8.7 percent increase
• Veterans Affairs -- $2.2 billion, 3.6 percent increase
• Energy -- $1.7 billion, 6.5 percent increase
• Education -- $1.4 billion, 2 percent increase
• Defense – $1.2 billion, 0.2 percent increase
• Treasury -- $766 million, 6.1 percent increase
• Commerce -- $285 million, 3.4 percent increase
• National Science Foundation -- $257 million, 3.5 percent increase
• Legislative Branch -- $209 million, 4.7 percent increase
• Judicial Branch – $169 million, 2.6 percent increase
• Labor -- $140 million, 1.2 percent increase

The agencies in the loser category took a much bigger hit with Plexico naming 12 agencies with a total of $52.8 billion in decreased spending:

• NASA -- $11 million, 0.1 percent decrease
• Intl Asst Programs -- $66 million, 0.3 percent decrease
• Interior -- $460 million, 3.8 percent decrease
• EPA -- $800 million, 8.9 percent decrease
• SBA -- $968 million, 50.4 percent decrease
• Justice -- $1.6 billion, 8.9 percent decrease
• Agriculture -- $1.7 billion, 8.9 percent decrease
• Corps of Engineers -- $1.9 billion, 28.6 percent decrease
• State -- $2.4 billion, 7.7 percent decrease
• Homeland Security -- $12.3 billion, 21.6 percent decrease
• Transportation -- $13.3 billion, 44.9 percent decrease
• Housing and Urban Development -- $17.3 billion, 34.4 percent decrease
• Plexico stressed that there was an important event in fiscal 2013 that accounts for such decreases, though.

“When you look at discretionary spending, there was a rather significant event that happened in 2013, not impacted by sequestration, which is the $50 billion funding bill for Hurricane Sandy,” Plexico said.

Hurricane Sandy funding accounts for the huge drops in the Homeland Security, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development departments, he said.