Keith Webster
President, Defense and Aerospace Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
President, Federal Acquisition Council, Cyber, Space and National Security Policy Division, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Published
June 07, 2021
OSD Overview: special guest Colin Sepko who runs trusted capital program in A&S and is new to the Pentagon coming from the private sector. Trusted capital update: why? Three strategic challenges for DIB are consolidation of DIB (significant changes in past five years); manufacturing and investment standpoint (most investments target software vice manufacturing due to margins being higher in software development); finally, foreign ownership and influence in DoD supply chains from materials to end items to logistics, and foreign ownership and influence within our US capital markets which was the catalyst for this DoD trusted capital program. Three lines of effort. Trusted digital capital platform effort including application and FOCI review. Once a company is FOCI cleared they are invited to join the platform. Second, 12 month DoD civilian and military member details to venture capital groups to learn about their business model. Third, all out effort by DoD to identify other capital groups who to date have not expressed interest in the DoD trusted capital program. Launched this January and to date 63 companies across eight sectors as well as 17 capital providers are now in the program as approved. Just google “trusted capital” which will take you to the OSD DoD link to learn how to join the program. Program is interested in dual use companies with some revenue stream from the USG but not a dominate revenue stream from the government. Those 63 companies now in the program are dual use and have less than 10% in revenue from the USG to date. OSD will provide an executive summary for the Chamber and Associations to pass to our members.
DLA: Working with US AID with global pandemic support most recently Nepal; working to replenish N95 mask for DHS; working to support Brazil COVID response; next small business webinar for new small business suppliers is 3pm on June 16th. See DLA website for sign up information.
DCMA: seven facilities currently impacted with average down time of 8.6 days; encouraged by industry communication which is improving every day with respect to impact visibility which remains trending down across the US.
DPC: vaccine allocation to overseas contractors and dependents has cleared and is to be signed by week’s end—this includes FMS contracts; Afghan drawdown—series of leadership meetings to work retrograde contracts and to support drawdown and will keep contractors informed. Discussion about setting up an information HUB sponsored by government to manage the challenges of what contracts remain in place and what contracts are canceled with respect to Afghanistan and what happens post drawdown.
Service Small Business Offices:Army small business—match making program on margins of Oct AUSA event still being planned. USAF small business—FY21 $7.3B to small business; 2600 contract actions at over $600M for FY 21 COVID specific support awarded to small businesses.
Associations:
All questions were raised during the various topic discussions above.
About the authors
Keith Webster
Keith Webster, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Defense and Aerospace Council, guides the focus of the council to strengthen the U.S. defense and aerospace industries by influencing domestic and international policy on behalf of its members.
