With a Continuing Resolution (CR) funding fiscal year (FY) 2022 until February and deep budget disagreements remaining, the Department of Defense (DoD) faces a significant risk it could be funded with CRs for the entirety of FY22. This would be a first for DoD and, as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has stated, “an unprecedented move that would cause enormous, if not irreparable, damage to a wide range of bipartisan priorities — from defense readiness and modernization to research and development, to public health.” These impacts will extend well beyond DoD, disrupting the performance of the defense industrial base (DIB) and economic activity across the U.S. The timing of an FY22 full-year CR could not be worse. Our country is navigating a near-perfect storm of a deteriorating strategic environment urgent catch-up defense modernization needs, surging inflation eroding defense buying power, and a defense industrial base (DIB) amid COVID-19, supply chain constraints, and workforce disruptions. To further quote Secretary Austin, a full-year CR “would misalign billions of dollars in resources in a manner inconsistent with evolving threats and the national security landscape, which would erode the U.S. military advantage relative to China, impede our ability to modernize, degrade readiness, and hurt our people and their families. And it would offer comfort to our enemies, disquiet to our allies, and unnecessary stress to our workforce.”
This is where the approximately 300,000 DoD contractors can ensure that they are securing their systems and in turn the nation against our adversaries. We cannot wait for the government to do this for us. We must take the lead. Your role in ensuring NIST 800-171 compliance and future CMMC 2.0 requirements will go a long way.