Contracting

  • Congress knows it wants to include some kind of acquisition reform in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. But it can't agree on what those reforms should look like. Beth McGrath is director of the federal strategy and operations practice at Deloitte and former deputy chief management officer at the Defense Department. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose why procurement policy reform is a start, but the main thing slowing down defense IT and weapons acquisition is process.

    August 17, 2015
  • The Office of Management and Budget just released new guidance on protecting non-sensitive information from federal contractors. The guidance would require contractors follow National Institute for Standards and Technology standards for protecting their information.

    August 17, 2015
  • Kevin DeSanto, co-founder and managing director of KippsDeSanto, joins host Mark Amtower to discuss mergers and acquisitions, including who is buying and who is selling. August 17, 2015

    August 17, 2015
  • GSA, on behalf of the Defense Information Systems Agency, made a $296 million award for email-as-a-service to Dell Federal. GSA made the award to Dell June 19.

    August 17, 2015
  • The real question GSA is trying to gather information on is whether the current cyber and information assurance SINs just need to be improved or if a new one is needed.

    August 17, 2015
  • Agencies will soon have an easier time buying telecom, cloud and other network services. The General Services Administration is working on the first of a few successors to its Networx contracts. Network Services 2020 Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions is offering agencies a more flexible buying market. Bob Woods is president of Topside Consulting and former commissioner of the Federal Technology Service at GSA. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose about the differences between the current Networx contracts and NS 20-20 Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions.

    August 14, 2015
  • Retired Maj. Gen. Dale Meyerrose, president of the Meyerrose Group and former CIO of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Steve Grundman, the George Lund Fellow for Emerging Defense Challenges at Brent Scowscroft Center on International Security of the Atlantic Council, count down the week's top stories with Francis Rose.

    August 14, 2015
  • Federal contractors might have to offer up to seven days of paid sick leave a year for their employees under a new executive order from President Barack Obama. But industry isn't thrilled. Four contracting associations have written to the White House. They say more regulations are making an already complicated acquisition process more difficult. Charles Tiefer is a law professor at the University of Baltimore. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that industry shouldn't get too worried about this order because they have plenty of tricks up their sleeves to stall and water it down.

    August 13, 2015
  • Federal contractors have new guidance for protecting government information from the CIO and CAO Councils. Contractors will have to comply with some of the same standards agencies do. Jeremy Grant is managing director at the Cheroff Group and former director of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace at NIST. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose what this means for contractors who will have to comply with these NIST standards.

    August 13, 2015
  • Contractors will have to give employees paid sick leave under an executive order the New York Times reports President Barack Obama will sign. Josh Alloy is counsel for Arnold and Porter's labor and employment group. He writes an advisory about what companies will have to do and what they should be planning to do. Alloy tells In Depth with Francis Rose that the scope of the executive order is pretty comprehensive.

    August 13, 2015
  • A measure of the health and strength of the government contracting industry is available through the GovCon Index. Executive Mosaic calculates it every day the stock market is open. Ross Wilkers is the newsroom editor of Executive Mosaic. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose how you can use it to gauge the gov con space.

    August 13, 2015
  • New guidance on protecting non-sensitive information from federal contractors is out from the CIO and CAO Councils. It would require that contractors follow a specific NIST Special Publication for protecting their information. The Office of Management and Budget is asking agencies and vendors now for feedback. Final guidance is expected later in the fall. Nick Nayak is former chief procurement officer at the Homeland Security Department. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that the councils are looking to address incident reporting, information system assessments, and information security continuous monitoring.

    August 12, 2015
  • Outgoing Army chief of staff Gen. Ray Odierno warns today, as he leaves his uniform behind, the military is risking its long-term viability to meet short-term demands. He’s worried about the Army’s readiness to engage in complex fights — its overall size — and a continuing squeeze on acquisition funding. More from Federal News Radio’s DoD reporter Jared Serbu.

    August 12, 2015
  • Federal contracting officers don't bargain hard enough, and aren't getting the best deals for the government. That's according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. And government buyers often don't seen enough competitive bids for products or services, even though it's generally required by law and regulation. Bill Woods is the Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management Issues at GAO. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more on the report.

    August 12, 2015