As of March 1st, the Sequester has officially begun. Government-wide budget cuts have been implemented and small businesses seem to be the early victim. The situation looks particularly troubling for small businesses that deal with the Department of Defense and related agencies. According to the Small Business Administration, 35% of Department of Defense suppliers are small businesses. In many cases, government agencies are the premier customer for these small firms, making the loss of federal contracts potentially fatal for these companies. Economics expert Dr. Stephen S. Fuller of George Mason University fears the Sequester could be even more devastating for small businesses than many realize. He believes that in addition to the loss of prime contracting opportunities, many small businesses are subcontractors to government agencies such as the Department of Defense. Therefore, the spending cuts will have a trickle-down effect on small businesses that could be equally devastating. Fuller mentions that in addition to this, many small businesses act as suppliers or vendors for prime federal contractors without even knowing it. This ignorance prevents proper strategic business planning for these firms that could lessen the effects of the Sequester. Fuller estimates that approximately half of the projected two million job losses resulting from the spending cuts could come from smaller firms. Small businesses across the country are beginning to brace themselves for the effects of the recent Sequester. Many firms are attempting to diversify their clients amongst different government agencies and further into the private sector. While it still remains to be seen what the true effects of the spending cuts will be on smaller firms, many companies are bracing for the worst. It is also worthy to note that the aforementioned budget cuts will likely effect all businesses including those that do not have federal contracts. The cuts are predicted to have a ripple effect that will show decreases in GDP and increases in unemployment, which foreshadow a recession.

A recent article by Matthew Weigelt discusses the Office of Federal Procurement Policy’s (OFPB) and lawmakers push for greater transparency in agency decision making and its impacts on small business. OFPP has issued a request to comment on the cost comparisons being conducted by federal agencies on whether to insource work previously contracted out to small businesses. Governmental insourcing has affected many small businesses in recent years and Congress is calling for transparency to ensure small businesses are looked after while simultaneously ensuring the decision to either insource or outsource is in the best interest of the taxpayers. The House of Representatives has recommended the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stop federal insourcing from small businesses until the federal agencies have publicized the information regarding their procedures and methodologies as stated in the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. The implementation of transparent practices will assist the federal government in its responsibility to cut spending and meet small-business contracting goals.

University of Baltimore’s Charles Tiefer has proposed multiple solutions to help agencies save money in the face of sequestration. Tiefer believes that there are things each agency can do now to save money lost in unnecessary contracts, in order to avoid furloughing government employees.

Understanding that the easiest way to reach the public these days is through their mobile devices, police departments have begun publishing mobile apps for citizens to report petty crimes and thefts. According to a multitude of departments, the old system of calling in each crime would lead to a backlog of paperwork and nearly a month turnaround to obtain a police report. Additionally, a lot much crime data was lost as it would be difficult for the department to follow up. Appalling numbers such as for every 2000 phone calls for reported crimes, only 500 police reports would result, showed the need for a change. Now with the mobile app, citizens fill out the crime information through the app and upon approval, a PDF copy is sent directly to them. This new system leads to not only less time spent and paperwork, but greater record keeping accuracy and creating more crime data for certain areas.

Recent investments in cloud technologies are showing marked improvement in sales and revenue. This points to an overarching demand for cloud-based services and technologies and increased interest in the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP).

Hurricane Sandy will be remembered not only as one of the worst hurricanes to hit the eastern seaboard, but also as the first natural disaster where social media platforms played a significant role. Twitter and Facebook dominated the social media world and were fully utilized by citizens on the ground and in other locations. Local officials were the most active on these platforms providing citizens with real-time updates on closures, emergency response, and weather updates. Virginia’s Fairfax county published a metrics report tracking their social media outreach and discovered over nearly 400,000 views, 10,175 likes, comments, and shares on Facebook, and about 1,500 retweets on Twitter. In addition, New York City’s Bloomberg Office reached over one million individuals using social media over the course of the storm, and even used the photo sharing application, Instagram, to share evacuation route maps. Going forward, this will be the new standard for crisis situations. It is crucial Federal, state, and local offices are prepared with citizen engagement software and platforms to track, respond, and provide information for citizens- before the next Sandy.