For the first time in 12 years, the House has finished all regular appropriations bills prior to the beginning of the next fiscal year. However, expected slow action in the Senate will delay a FY 2018 spending blueprint until December – at the earliest.The House approved an omnibus appropriations bill for FY 2018 on 14 September, the first time it has passed all the appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year in a dozen years (for FY 2006). The 12 appropriations bills, however, were passed as two packages rather than individually in accordance with regular order. It approved the first on 27 July, a $700 billion package that consolidated the four bills for the defense department (including military construction) and the legislative branch as...
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.