After the midterms: What GovCon needs to watch
Rep. James Walkinshaw, speaking here outside the Capitol in 20205, will be a featured speaker at next week's After the MidTerms event in Tysons, Virginia. Gettyimages.com/Bill Clark / Contributor
By
Nick Wakeman
A lame duck Congress, a looming shutdown fight and a new balance of power will shape the market in 2027. A GovExec event next Thursday will help you make sense of it.
No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, there is little doubt that the upcoming midterm elections will potentially be among the most consequential in recent memory.
Several issues close to the hearts of government contractors will be affected by the results of the election.
High on the impact list is the lame duck session of Congress as legislators return to Washington. Some will return victorious after retaining their seats. Others will return for the last time and will be packing up their offices.
They will face the need to pass a fiscal year 2027 budget and there likely will be little appetite for compromise.
Without some agreement on how to move forward, the prospect of a government shutdown will loom over the market and we all know how painful shutdowns are.
But the budget is just one of many issues the lame duck session and the new Congress will grapple with. Investigations and oversight hearings will ramp up if the Democrats control one or both houses, while a more aggressive push of the Trump administration’s agenda will unfold GOP retains control.
Congress will weigh in on issues such as the wars in Iran and Ukraine, data centers and artificial intelligence.
What we hear in the days immediately following the midterm results will tell us a lot about how the lame duck session will go, as well as the atmosphere going into the next session.
There’s a lot to unpack and to help you get your arms around the changes to come, our parent company GovExec is hosting an event next Thursday, Nov. 5 called appropriately enough – After the MidTerms.
The doors open at 2:30 p.m. at the Starr Hill Tysons Brewpub in Tysons, Virginia. The program kicks off at 3 p.m. with opening remarks by our new CEO Dan McCarthy.
Then we will have several sessions focused on what to watch for, 2027 opportunities and an overview of the contracting landscape.
Our speaker lineup includes Mike Hettinger, president and founding principal of Hettinger Strategy Group; Aaron Heffron, president of research and forecasting for GovExec; Reeba Magulick, senior founding partner of d8 Group, GovExec’s latest acquisition; Tom Suder, founder of ATARC, another GovExec business; and Ira Entis, growth and strategy lead for Accenture Federal Services.
My boss Frank Konkel, editor-in-chief of GovExec, will sit down with Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Virginia) to talk about the next Congress and what the election results mean for its relationship with the administration. Walkinshaw will share his thoughts on the funding decisions ahead, areas of potential agreement and friction and the implications for agencies and contractors.
The formal program will be followed by cocktails and networking.
Follow this link to register. Do not miss this opportunity as leaders in the market provide a roadmap for what you will have to navigate next.