Acquisition Policy
-
The House Armed Services Committee is expected to release its first version of the 2018 Defense Authorization bill this week and in it many observers predict provisions to make it easier for the military to buy commercial items.
May 15, 2017 -
This week on Amtower Off Center, business strategist Bob Davis joins host Mark Amtower to discuss business strategy development in the government contracting market. May 15, 2017
May 14, 2017 -
Policy updates include changes to the Transactional Data Reporting Rule, the reopening of Schedule 75 for office supplies, and streamlining professional services solicitations.
May 12, 2017 -
The Contractor Performance Assessment Reports System (CPARS) is one of the Defense Department's most potent weapons for dealing with poor performing companies. But sometimes contracting officers make erroneous judgments and enter them into CPARS. Then what? Contractors can sue. But procurement attorney Joseph Petrillo of Petrillo and Powell tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin that even if they win the case, they don't really win.
May 11, 2017 -
Butch Luckie, the Air Force’s chief of IT business analytics, said the service is doing a better job capturing software and hardware asset data to help make better buying decisions.
May 11, 2017 -
Chris Cairns and Robert L. Read make the case for agencies to once again try to use share-in-savings contracts to modernize technology systems.
May 10, 2017 -
Tom Howder, assistant commissioner for FAS’s Assisted Acquisition Service and Chris Hamm, director of FEDSIM, join host Roger Waldron on this week's Off the Shelf to discuss AAS' shared service model. May 9, 2017
May 09, 2017 -
When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson kicked off a reorganization with a speech to career employees, he followed that with a survey going to everyone. It's part of a governmentwide reorganization envisioned by the Trump administration. And it's got observers, like contractors, wondering where this is all headed. Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council, offers his take on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
May 08, 2017 -
Preliminary analysis by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) shows the number of new regulations agencies and vendors must adhere to has increased from 16 to 142 since 2009.
May 08, 2017 -
The Defense Information Systems Agency has set up an approach for customers to send money to a working capital fund to pay for cloud services based on usage.
May 08, 2017 -
Tomas Okeefe and Chris Wiedemann, market research consultants at immixGroup, join host Mark Amtower on this week's Amtower Off Center to federal tech spending during the rest of fiscal year 2017. May 8, 2017
May 07, 2017 -
The Defense Department's Strategic Capabilities Office has managed to successfully transition all six of the weapons systems it's developed into programs of record that are now controlled by the military services. The secret to its success, according to the SCO's director, is its insistence on prototyping.
May 05, 2017 -
The Army's quick response acquisition shop is beginning to field technologies.
May 03, 2017 -
Aerospace is about as international an industry as you can find. Yet the U.S. is a large exporter of aerospace products, and industry produces a multi-billion dollar trade surplus. No wonder aerospace executives are happy that the Export-Import Bank is re-authorized and has the backing of the Trump administration. David Melcher, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, shames more on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
May 03, 2017 -
Dave McClure, a former Government Accountability Office and General Services Administration executive and now chief strategist for Coalfire, said the company studied the six-year-old program and found costs, usage and time to get through the process are much better than the general perception.
May 03, 2017