By Debbie Gregory.

Sean C. Page is going to prison. The 45-year-old man from Frisco, Texas was convicted of using his father’s identity to land lucrative federal government contracts under a set-aside program for disabled veterans.

Page, who has never served in the military, was sentenced to serve six year in federal prison for theft of government property and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He was convicted by a jury in February.

He used his father’s name and Social Security number to cash in on his veteran disability status, according to prosecutors.

Dalton Page was unaware of his son’s illegal activities. The combat veteran served in the U.S. Army for 17 years, and was awarded two Bronze Stars during his service in Vietnam, and received a disability rating of 100 percent upon discharge.

Page scammed the federal contracting program out of about $1.2 million with 14 contracts from 2009 to 2013 using two companies he formed, according to officials.

He created 12G Resources Group and Premier Building Maintenance to provide general services such as cleaning and landscape work for veteran-owned facilities, the indictment said.

The programs are for the benefit of service disabled veteran businesses.

“Those who steal and attempt to steal monies from these programs will be vigorously prosecuted,” said U.S. Attorney John M. Bales of the Eastern District of Texas.

Dalton Page said, “Sean is my son, but those programs are set aside for GIs such as myself. I am very disappointed in him getting those contracts like that. The contracts were put in my name. He had me backed in a corner.”

Page continued to do federal contract work after his October 2014 arraignment in violation of a federal judge’s order, court records show. He earned $35,175 from a landscaping and snow removal job with the Veterans Medical Center of Salt Lake City while he was out on bond.

By Debbie Gregory.

UnitedHealthcare is in good company as Health Net Federal Services and WellPoint Military Care have joined in on the protest of the awarding of the military contract to manage the Tricare health program.

The contract, called T-2017 and awarded in July, is worth up to $58 billion and oversees private health services for nearly 9.4 million military family members, retirees and active duty personnel.

Health Net Federal Services, which now manages the Tricare North Region and was awarded the contract to manage Tricare’s West region, filed a protest over the Defense Department’s decision to give the East region contract to Humana Government Business.

The Defense Department and the Defense Health Agency said in 2014 that they would shift Tricare from a three-region system—North, South and West—to two coverage areas.

The brand new East region is a consolidation of the North and South regions

The West region contract has a maximum value of $18 billion over six years, while the six-year East region contract is potentially worth $41 billion.

WellPoint Military Care, a division of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, was created to vie for the lucrative contract.

UnitedHealth Military & Veterans, which manages the Tricare West contract, was the first to file protests over the awards. It was not selected to manage either of the new consolidated regions.

A Pentagon spokesman said the protest will not affect health care services for Tricare beneficiaries, adding that the current contracts will remain in place until all protests are resolved.

The Defense Health Agency has 30 days to respond to the protests. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is expected to rule on the bid protest by November 9, 2016.

By Debbie Gregory.

The U.S. Air Force has asked defense firms to bid to supply new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and Long-Range Standoff Weapons (LRSOs), which are nuclear cruise missiles. It is rumored that the Air Force intends this next generation of ICBMs will have the capability to be deployed on mobile launchers.

A 2014 report by the RAND Corp. on the future of the ICBM force said a “mobile missile must be designed and built to more-demanding specifications then a silo-based ICBM, such as remaining “reliable under the rigors of periodic movement.” The Minuteman III currently is not capable of being put on a mobile platform.

The controversial move comes during a time of heightened tensions with Russia.

Ten senators, all Democrats, have asked the Obama administration to scale back plans for new nuclear weapons, as well as the bombers and submarines that would be used to transport them. The senators specifically called for canceling LRSO, saying it could save taxpayers $20 billion.

“Nuclear war poses the gravest risk to American national security,” the senators wrote.

In a statement, Air Force officials  said they would choose up to two contractors by the fourth quarter of 2017 to build the new cruise missiles. Those two contractors will then compete for 54 months “to complete a preliminary design with demonstrated reliability and manufacturability, which will be followed by a competitive down-select to a single contractor.”

The Air Force maintains that the new cruise missile is necessary to replace its current air-launched cruise missiles, which were designed in the 1970s and built in the 1980s. The Air Force wants the new missiles by 2030.

The Pentagon wants to deploy the new ICBMs in the late 2020s.

According to the Pentagon, Humana Government Business Inc, a unit of Humana Inc, and Health Net Federal Services LLC have been selected to provide managed care support to the U.S. Defense Department’s TRICARE healthcare program.

The total potential value of Humana’s contract is estimated to be $40.5 billion.

The total potential value of Health Net’s contract is estimated at $17.7 billion.

By Debbie Gregory.

The Supreme Court came down on the side of veteran business owners by finding that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) failed to comply with a law aimed at increasing the number of federal contracts awarded to veteran owned small businesses.

The justices sided with Kingdomware Technologies Inc., a service disabled veteran-owned contractor based in Maryland that said it should have been considered to provide services for a VA medical center.

The issue before the Court was whether a federal law which provides that, as long as certain conditions are met, the Department of Veterans Affairs “shall award” contracts to small businesses owned by veterans applies every time the department awards contracts.  The federal government had argued that the rule left some room for discretion, but on June 16^th, the Court rejected that argument.  “Shall,” the Court emphasized, was meant as a command, not an option.

The case dates back to 2012, when the VA awarded a contract for an emergency notification system that would send information to its employees, to a company that was not owned by a veteran. Kingdomware, which is owned by a U.S. Army veteran who was permanently disabled from an injury that he suffered while serving in 1991’s Operation Desert Storm, challenged the award. Kingdomware provides web, software, and technology solutions to enterprise problems.

Federal law requires the agency to use a bidding process if two or more disabled veteran-owned companies can offer service at a fair and reasonable price. But the VA argued the “rule of two” does not apply when it buys goods and services from vendors that already have contracts with the agency under a system called the Federal Supply Schedule.

Justice Clarence Thomas said the rule applies to all contract determinations.

A federal appeals court had said the VA did not have to follow the rule of two if it otherwise met the goal of awarding between 7 percent and 12 percent of all contracts to companies owned by disabled veterans. But Thomas said meeting annual benchmarks does not allow the VA to ignore a mandatory contracting rule

Veteran-owned small businesses see the ruling as a victory that gives them more opportunities to compete for contracts from the VA which, they would say, is exactly what Congress intended.