GovWin Federal Agency Planner Update – Army Corps of Engineers

BACKGROUND:

Account Planners are published on 100 select GovWin Federal Agency Profiles. The Planners serve as an overview of an agency’s complete profile, providing a high-level summary of the organization’s structure, budget and spending information, employment data, and strategic goals and objectives (when made available). The Planners are updated annually or if there is a significant change to agency’s structure or strategic mission.  The following blog highlights notable differences observed when the Planner was updated recently. In order to access any links below, a subscription that includes access to Deltek’s GovWin Federal Agency Profiles is necessary.

Army Corps of Engineers:

Changes in Total Discretionary Budget – Deltek’s Agency Profiles use the President’s Budget Authorization, as opposed to the budget appropriations, to measure discretionary budget requests. The budget authorization specifies the total amount an agency is authorized to spend, while the budget appropriations signify the amount Congress will actually make available for any agency’s program during the budget authorization process. Because Congressional budget negotiations have resulted in continuing budget resolutions (funding agencies at the same appropriation level as the previous year) for well over 20 years, the Budget Authorization provides the best indication of the budget request changes from one year to the next.

Deltek measures changes in discretionary budget growth from the last full fiscal year which, in this case FY 2017, through the budget request year, FY 2019.  During this period, USACE’s budget request declined 33.3%, decreasing from $7.2 billion in 2017 to $4.8 billion in 2019.  The decrease in USACE’s discretionary request is represented in a number of its budget accounts. Leading the decline is the Construction budget account which sustained a nearly 50% cut in its total authorization, decreasing from $1,759 billion in 2017 to $872 billion in 2019.

USACE’s construction centric requests in other authorization accounts equates to $1 billion to fund 26 projects, consisting of: 12 flood risk management projects, seven aquatic ecosystem restoration projects, and seven navigation projects. $872 million in authorization will come from the Construction account, $109 million from the Mississippi River and Tributaries account, $33 million from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and $5 million will come from the Inland Water Ways Trust Fund.

Source: Deltek, OMB - President’s FY 2019 Budget Authorization

Changes in Contract Spending – Overall prime spending from FY 2016 and FY 2017 (the last two complete government fiscal years) at USACE increased 5.2%. Not surprisingly, given the agency’s mission, Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) accounted for approximately 64% of the agency’s spending in 2017, totaling $8.1 billion.

In terms of growth, Engines and Mechanical Equipment led all spending segments with a whopping 921% growth, followed by Social Services which saw 242% year over year growth. While the growth was outstanding, the dollar value of these two segments was just $85 million and $1 million respectively in 2017.    

USACE’s AEC spending was driven by a small number of contracts, the largest of which was the Olmsted Dam Construction Project; held by AECOM, $219 million in prime spending was reported under this contract in 2017. USACE’s USACE AEC FY 16 East Campus Building 2 Project Located at Fort Mead MD contract was another top contributor to the AEC spending segment. The contract, awarded to Clark Construction Group, reported $173 million in prime spending in 2017.

Although significantly less than the AEC segment, 2017 spending in the Operations & Maintenance (O&M), at $1.4 billion, was the next highest reporting segment. O&M contracting was led by the USACE AEC Phase I Mississippi Coastal Improvement Program Ship Island contract; awarded to Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation, $88.6 million was reported in 2017.

Changes in Employment – Between 2017 and 2018, USACE’s civilian employee population decreased just under 1%. The agency reported having 33,794 civilian employees midway through the middle of fiscal year 2018. The Professional occupation category contained 15,802 employees, just under 50% of USCE’s total employee population. The Civil Engineering subcategory, with 5,480 employees, made up approximately 34% of the Professional category.    

Blue Collar, Other White Collar, and Clerical occupation categories, when combined, accounted for all 276 agency losses between 2017 and 2018. The Blue Collar occupation accounted for 251 of these losses alone. The leading sub-occupations within the Professional occupation to add employees was Contracting, which added 34 employees, followed by Accounting, which added 21 employees during the same period.

Changes in IT Budget Request – In 2019, the Department of Defense began excluding spending related to National Security System (NSS) programs from its IT budget (Exhibit 53). As defined by DOD, National Security System programs are telecommunications and information systems operated by the DOD, the functions, operation, or use of which —  

1. involves intelligence activities;
2. involves cryptologic activities related to national security;
3. involves command and control of military forces;
4. involves equipment that is an integral part of a weapon or weapons system; or
5. is critical to the direct fulfillment of military or intelligence missions.

This designation does not include procurement of automated data processing equipment or services to be used for routine administrative and business applications (including payroll, finance, logistics, and personnel management applications).

Specific to USACE, there is no precipitous drop in budget totals from 2018 to 2019 (as is the case in other Defense agencies where NSS programs are no longer reported), thus hinting that its request is not specific to NNS programs. USACE’s 2018 estimated spending increased to $470 million in the FY 2019 budget request, up from $451 million in the FY 2018 request. USACE’s total IT request in FY 2019 was $468 million.

USACE’s largest program based on total investment is the USACE Standard IT: End User program. With a request of $111 million in 2019, the program is defined as: standard investment for end user services including laptops, Mobile Devices, End User Software, Network Printers, Conferencing & AV, and IT Help desk. Despite being the largest program, it is an existing program and 100% of the request is targeted for operation and maintenance (O&M), or continuing spending.

The Exhibit 53 is divided into two pools of monies. Operation and Maintenance (O&M) is money requested for existing programs, while Development, Modernization and Enhancement (DME) is money requested for new programs, and indicates the addressable market for IT vendors. In FY 2019, USACE’s top programs based on requested DME are as follows.

• Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) - DME: $6.8 Million     Total: $11.3 Million
• Civil Works Business Intelligence (CWBI) – DME: $5.9 Million    Total $21.7 Million
• Corps of Engineers Financial Management System (CEFMS) - DME: $4.8 Million    Total $17.2 Million
• Homeowners Assistance Program Management Information System (HAPMIS) – DME: $1.3 Million    Total: $3.7 Million

Changes in the Leading Contractors – From FY 2016 to FY2017, USACE’s top contractor landscape underwent a huge shake up. The two contractors at the top simply flipped spots, with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation moving into the top spot over AECOM but after that, the order of the top contractors is in no way similar to the previous year. Weeks Marine reported the third most prime obligations in 2017, up from 2016, when they ranked number seven. Three of the top ten contractors in 2017: Clark Enterprises, Manson Construction Company, and Nippon Hodo Co., were not even amongst the top 10 contractors in 2016, while Unit-ASRC Construction LLC. had no reported prime spending obligations in 2016, but reported enough to climb into the top 10 for FY 2017.

Together, the reported prime obligations of the top 10 vendors totaled $2.2 billion in 2017, which accounted for approximately 17% of USACE’s 2017 total, which was nearly level with 18% of the total in 2016.  

Source: Deltek, FPDS

To explore more in-depth federal spending and budget data as well as opportunities, contracts, and task orders specific to this agency please visit the Army Corps of Engineers Federal Agency Profile or download the entire Army Corps of Engineers Agency Planner.