COVID-19: What Happens Next?
David J. Berteau, PSC President and CEO
From the time of the earliest federal building closure in King County, Washington, because of coronavirus infections, we have asked the question of what will happen when the epidemic starts to recede.

At PSC, we are looking at that question from two perspectives. One is a question of how do companies prepare for what happens next. The second is the question of what the government does and how it affects federal services contracts. 

We can’t predict the success or timing of the needed Covid-19 treatments, vaccines, immunities, or preventions, but we can prepare better to meet the government’s needs for vital contractor support.

Let’s look at both of these questions.  

What Companies Are Thinking
Every company is concerned for the health and safety of its workers and their households and families. For them, what matters are federal and state guidelines. Of course, adherence to these guidelines may require changes to work space, work schedules, and work systems and processes. 

New practices may be required, such as taking and recording temperatures of arriving workers, scheduling who gets to use the kitchen and when, or providing masks and wipes. Beyond that, companies may look at individual circumstances, including the age and health of employees, home and family situations (such as children without daycare, care for elderly or ill family members, etc.), access to transportation, and the viability of alternative work arrangements.

What Uncle Sam Is Thinking
If worker health and safety is vitally important, the question is how the government’s next steps will be consistent with that. For that, we need to look at the second question, what are the government's next steps and how they affect federal services contractors.

In an April memorandum, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management listed key characteristics for agencies to consider before repopulating their facilities. These memos, however, provided little information about measuring those characteristics or making results visible either to the federal civilians or their supporting contractors. 

PSC has raised questions with agencies regarding input from affected contractors, including safety, performance, cost recovery, and liability.  However, it’s possible that agency answers may appear as government decisions and actions without input from affected companies and their workers.  In our view, that would be a mistake. 
What do you do in the meantime? 

PSC recommends that you engage early and often with your current customers, program managers, and contracting officers. Ask that they include you and your workers and subcontractors as they develop plans for what’s next. 

Combining the constraints of many federal buildings with existing guidelines and social distancing may mean that not every worker who was there before the COVID-19 emergency can go back. In that case, what does the government do? Keep contractors out? 

For operations that cannot be performed remotely, such as touch labor or accessing government systems and information (including classified data and systems), some agencies already restrict contractor access and performance. Such restraints could expand as more facilities re-population adheres to CDC guidelines.

Teleworking Is Succeeding
Most federal agencies have maximized the ability of contractors to work remotely, and many of our members report that measurable productivity has increased with teleworking. Maybe those agencies should maintain the increased flexibility that expanded teleworking has already delivered.

There are some real advantages for that increased flexibility. Companies might be better able to recruit and retain new or younger workers. Workers would have greater flexibility if they are affected by school closures, no childcare, or the need to care for sick or vulnerable family members. 

Technology Investments Are Needed
For that to be sustained, the federal government needs substantial investment in systems, far greater than already provided under the Modernizing Government Technology Act that PSC supported in 2018. Congress could provide substantial increases in technology funding for federal agencies as part of the next COVID-19 supplemental.

Keep Workers Working
A priority since the of the emergency has been to maximize continued employment of the workforce. For federal contractors, this comes from keeping all of the government operating, a PSC priority from the beginning. There are two important steps here. 

One is to ensure agencies obligate their full Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations, in accordance with the FY20-21 budget cap increases enacted last summer. 

This means agencies need to keep evaluating and awarding contracts from existing proposals while promulgating solicitations for new contracts. Federal work to meet the needs of the American people is important and fully funded, but contracts have to be awarded to keep the workforce on the payroll and fully engaged.

The second important step is for Congress to enact timely, full-year appropriations for Fiscal Year 2021. Appropriations subcommittees in the House of Representatives have already received their allocations, consistent with those higher budget caps. 

The Senate should follow their lead, and quickly. 

With agreement on the total dollars and allocation by appropriation subcommittee, Congress should swiftly be able to mark up and passed legislation in time for the start of the fiscal year. This would remove uncertainty in the agencies, avoid the negative impact of Continuing Resolutions, and eliminate the threat (however small) of a government shutdown, all while supporting full employment in the federal sector.  

What Happens Next?
In the end, we don’t know. What we do know is that the government needs to keep operating, that contractors are essential for that to happen, and that our member companies and everyone in the industry has stepped up and will continue to play that role to the fullest extent possible. 

One thing sure to happen next is that, at PSC, we will continue to advocate for the proper funding, agency-level guidance, procurement rules, and timely progress on awarding contracts.