David Drabkin

David Drabkin, chair of the Section 809 Panel, joined host Roger Waldron on this week’s Off the Shelf to discuss the panel’s progress and outline the group’s findings on commercial item contracting. November 20, 2018

If the Defense Department wants faster and better ways to do acquisition, it’s got to do more than change a few rules.

In biweekly meetings, DoD contracting experts are chewing through every page of the Pentagon’s procurement rules. They expect to eliminate about half.

Rep. Mac Thornberry’s (R-Texas) latest proposal for acquisition reform presses DoD to implement the initiatives Congress has already passed; borrows heavily from “809 panel” for new ones.

The Section 809 Panel, named for the defense authorization act paragraph that chartered it, has been working hard at recommendations for comprehensive reform.

In part two of a special report: Defense Acquisition at a Crossroads, Federal News Radio examines the challenges the Defense Department will face as it implements numerous Congressional acquisition reforms, many of which it didn’t ask for.

The Procurement Roundtable, which includes former OFPP administrators, DoD and agency acquisition executives, sent a letter to President Donald Trump with recommendations to improve the federal buying process.