Happy Friday and Happy Mother’s Day! Celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals. The American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Did you know that the most phone calls are made in the United States on Mother’s Day? We hope you have a wonderful weekend and please acknowledge all those mothers and mother-figures in your life. Have a nice weekend.

And now in federal government contracting news this week, some of the interesting updates included GAO’s look at waste in federal programs (they found some) as well as a push to lift budget caps on the DoD.

• Acquisition Innovation: From Other Transactions to Fast-Pitch Proposals
• For contractors, the next few months are all about numbers.
• Airfield Contractor Denied Costs Stemming From Taliban Takeover
• United States Sanctions Senior Leader of the LockBit Ransomware Group
• Judge Upholds Findings That Maryland Subcontractor Denied 55 Workers on Federally Funded Project Their Full Pay, Fringe Benefits, Owes $186K
• The effect of female leadership on contracting from Capitol Hill to Main Street
• 6 Actions Policy And Change Makers Can Take To Promote Economic Equity
• Notice of Initial Determination To Remove Shrimp From Thailand and Garments From Vietnam From the List of Products Requiring Federal Contractor Certification as to Forced or Indentured Child Labor Pursuant to Executive Order 1312
• Audit of the Army’s Award of Noncompetitive Contracts in Support of Ukraine (Report No. DODIG-2024-078)
• GAOverview: Understanding Waste in Federal Programs
• DoD stands up ‘SWAT team’ to help speed software acquisition
• Appropriators push to lift budget caps, increase Pentagon budget