A regular Federal Drive guest departs for a job in the new administration
Larry Allen, a seasoned federal sales and marketing executive and Federal Drive guest, will be the director of the Office of Governmentwide Policy at GSA.
Regular listeners of the Federal Drive have looked forward to the appearance of Larry Allen, a seasoned federal sales and marketing executive, and former director of the Coalition for Government Procurement. His regular appearances have ended, at least for now, because he’s taking a job under the Trump administration as director of the Office of Governmentwide Policy at the General Services Administration. On the morning before the inauguration, he joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss.
Interview transcript:
Tom Temin: And Larry, you’re going into the very thing you’ve been analyzing and sort of butting heads with for so many years.
Larry Allen: Tom, there’s no small amount of irony in that. I’ve worked with GSA for over 30 years to the point where even some people in GSA would be surprised to hear that I’ve never previously worked at the agency. But I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to come in and make a difference.
Tom Temin: And you and I have often talked about IT procurement. But OGP, the Office of Governmentwide Policy, has a much broader portfolio, including, I think, something you’re interested in, and that is the federal building service and the policies there, too.
Larry Allen: It does. It has policies for the federal building services, Tom. It also oversees IT policy, basically serves as kind of the field army for a lot of what the Office of Management and Budget wants to do. This office has more bodies and more people. And of course, near and dear to my heart, acquisition policy, which is something that I really want to focus on.
Tom Temin: So the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to some degree and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, OFPP, two smallish pieces within OMB. That is who you’re going to interact with a lot, I would imagine.
Larry Allen: I think that’s right. This is a very OMB-facing organization. Looking forward to working closely with the folks that I know and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and OIRA, as well as meeting whoever comes in that’s new. New people, lots of energy, Tom. So I’m anticipating a quick start.
Tom Temin: And how do these things come about? They call you. You call them. I mean, they know who you were, I guess the landing teams for GSA.
Larry Allen: Well, right. So ironically, you work on projects through your career and you come into contact with people on Capitol Hill, people in the administration. And at one meeting or another, somebody says, ‘Well, how about this guy? I don’t know, give him a call.’ And next thing you know, my phone rings and the rest, as they say, is history. So it’s one of those things where, I guess, if you hang around long enough and talk to enough people, your name bubbles up to the top and it should be exciting.
Tom Temin: And this is not one of those types of positions or those types of policies, which are overtly political in general. I mean, there’s different attitudes towards contractors in their role depending on the administrations, but nobody ever really reduces federal contracting, regardless of whether they’re Republican or Democrat. And so it’s probably a nice feeling to go into something that’s not going to be highly political in the sense of energy secretary or something.
Larry Allen: My experience in government procurement, Tom, is exactly that. This is not really a partisan area of government operation. I’ve been fortunate to work with people of all political stripes over the course of my career, people who really, generally speaking, want to do the right thing. Occasionally, you’ll get somebody who wants to play a game of gotcha, but again, you can’t really identify those people by a specific partisan stripe because they come in all shapes and sizes. But generally, on a day-to-day basis, this is something where you’re just trying to inject a little common sense, bring down some overhead for the taxpayer, improve some efficiency in how the government acquires things and operate its technology and buildings. And that’s all things that I think everybody can get behind.
Tom Temin: We’re speaking with federal sales and marketing executive Larry Allen speaking before he is to enter the administration. This interview taking place just before inauguration the other day. And this job, OGP, wasn’t always political. It was a career job at some point. But when did it become a pointy job?
Larry Allen: Tom, I said good question and I think this became an appointee position in the first Trump administration and it stayed on as an appointee position through the Biden administration. I’ve been fortunate enough to talk to some of my predecessors who’ve been in this position during those times. They’ve offered some good insight. It’s always good to learn from people who’ve been there where you’re going. So and of course, I know a number of people in this office, so I’m hoping for a good transition for myself and be able to get off to a fast start.
Tom Temin: Well, being at GSA, you won’t have any trouble getting office supplies on the first day.
Larry Allen: Now, I think I might know a thing or two about that.
Tom Temin: And you can pack No. 2 pencils. It’s not that expensive anyway, if you have to lay it out yourself. And I guess my question is, do you have any idea yet what it is they want to get done first as you’re coming in, do they say, ‘Here’s what we want to have happen here,’ are you waiting to get all that download?
Larry Allen: So I think, generally speaking, Tom, you can anticipate that this organization is going to focus on a lot of things that GSA traditionally focuses on. I think there’s going to be a real interest in upgrading public buildings. There’s going to have to be a balance struck between public buildings and the potential. We haven’t really talked about this, but the potential for getting more people to go back into an office. We’ll have to see how that works itself out. It’s going to be something where we’re looking for efficiencies. What can be wrung out of the process? How can you improve the internal structures inside the agency? GSA has a lot of old technology, even though they’ve tried to upgrade it for probably the last eight years. My understanding is that there’s a lot of work that still has to be done. So there’s going to be plenty to do and probably not a lot of time to do it. So we’re going to have to work smartly.
Tom Temin: Now, in the earlier Trump administration, they had issued an executive order that all construction for federal buildings shall be in the classical style, I think they put it. No plans yet that you’re aware of to chop off the front of the Health and Human Services building and put a neoclassical colonnade there instead of the brutalism.
Larry Allen: I certainly have not heard anything like that. Public buildings is one of those areas that is of interest to me, but more of my experience lies in the acquisition and policy side. I have not heard anything like that. So we’ll have to see what they do. But I do think that there’s a real interest in this administration for making downtown Washington, the federal part of it, a city that everybody can be proud of. So whether you get a specific type of face-lift or not, the overarching idea is to make it a place where people like to come to work and like to come to visit. Cleaner, safe, all of the things that are kind of motherhood and apple pie.
Tom Temin: And you had relocated your family to Florida. Sometimes people don’t relocate to re-relocate to Washington to take over jobs in the federal government. These jobs often have a 2- to 4-year life in reality. But you’ll be living in Washington and going to work there.
Larry Allen: I think I’d better do that. I think that sets the right tone. If you’re going to be in charge of an organization, you should be at the organization visibly as much as possible. So despite the fact that I have truly enjoyed 18 months in Florida and have to come back to Washington in 20-degree weather, I will be back in because I think if you’re going to be leading a group of people, you expect to be there physically. You have to be there physically. So that is exactly what I’m planning on doing. And hopefully, I’ll get down to Florida every now and then.
Copyright © 2025 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Tom Temin
Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years.
Follow @tteminWFED
