President Obama has nominated Joseph Jordan to be the next Office of Federal Procurement Policy chief. Jordan is a senior advisor at the Office of Management and Budget and a former government contracting leader at the Small Business Administration. He would replace Dan Gordon, who left in December for a job at George Washington University.

Steven Schooner, co-director of the Government Procurement Law program at the school, joined The Federal Drive with Tom Temin with his take on Jordan’s nomination and what’s ahead for the federal contracting community.

Schooner said the best OFPP administrators have been able to win confidence from the acquisition community. Whether Jordan needs the title of administrator to accomplish this goal is unclear, Schooner said.

His goal, however, should be to “empower and get the acquisition workforce focused on getting value for the government customer, focusing on customer satisfaction and, frankly, assisting in slowing down — whatever administration it is — simply adding to more rules, adding to cost-drivers and making the system more complex and not necessarily improving it in the long-run.”

Because of Jordan’s SBA background, “it would be easy for people to conclude that maybe this is just part of the President’s campaign initiative to try to reach out and mobilize the small business community, but I don’t think that’s necessarily what people should expect,” Schooner said.

It’s uncertain if Jordan will even be confirmed by the Senate before the election, Schooner said.

“Actually, I think a fair number of people were surprised that the administration put the nomination forward at this time, so we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.

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