Senators Ready “Procurement Fraud Prevention Act”
Apr 14, 2017
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) has announced he will introduce a bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) called the Procurement Fraud Prevention Act, with the aim of preventing small businesses from being defrauded when they register to bid for federal contracts. The bill “would require small...
OMB Guidance Continues Ideas from Past Administration
Apr 14, 2017
FCW looks at the memo from Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, providing guidance to agencies on how they should spend their budgets now that the hiring freeze has been lifted. The article notes that many of the directives seem to be continuing the policies of the past...
Small Business Group Sues DoD over Access to Internal Documents
Apr 14, 2017
The American Small Business League (ASBL) is taking the Department of Defense (DoD) to court, arguing it should have access to internal documents related to the Pentagon’s Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program, which is intended to assess whether “comprehensive subcontracting plans on...
Education Secretary DeVos Withdraws Student Loan Contractor Guidance
Apr 14, 2017
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has withdrawn guidance issued by President Barack Obama designed to improve the contracting process for student loan services. The guidance had directed the Office of Federal Student Aid to consider past behavior of servicers in awarding contracts and to include...
New York State Foregoes Procurement Reforms
Apr 14, 2017
Despite a number of high-profile procurement corruption scandals, procurement reforms expected in the proposed state budget have been left out. “The budget does not include needed reforms to the state’s procurement practices to better ensure spending accountability and transparency,”...
Public Spend Forum Newswire | 3/31/2017
Apr 3, 2017
Contracting Transparency Bill Receives Pushback from Industry
As we reported last week, Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has introduced S.651, the “Contractor Accountability and Transparency Act of 2017,” which would require some contracts to be published online, in the interest of transparency....
Public Spend Forum Newswire | 3/28/2017
Mar 29, 2017
Will Trump Step in Between Palantir and the Pentagon?
Fortune Magazine reports on the tension between Silicon Valley company Palantir and the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD is looking to update its Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGSA), a massive data management system that Palantir...
Public Procurement News Round-up | 3/17/2017
Mar 20, 2017
GSA Would See Large Increase in Trump’s Budget
Daniel J. Sernovitz of the Washington Business Journal notes that while many agencies would see cuts under President Donald Trump’s budget recommendations, the federal government’s central buyer, the General Services Administration (GSA), would...
Public Spend Forum Newswire | 3/15/2017
Mar 16, 2017
FirstNet Expects Protest Decision “Within Days”
FCW reports that FirstNet, the effort to create a national broadband network to connect public safety officers at every level of government, expects a decision “within days” regarding a protest of its first major contract. FirstNet had...
Public Spend Forum Newswire | 2/28/2017
Mar 1, 2017
Nearly 200 Firms Respond to Notice about Border Wall
GovExec reports that some 180 companies have responded to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) pre-solicitation notice, inquiring about “prototype wall structures” for President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along the Mexico...
Public Spend Forum Newswire | 2/13/2017
Feb 13, 2017
New York Congresswoman Introduces the Surviving Spouse Contracting Preference Act
Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) has introduced H.R.971, the Surviving Spouse Contracting Preference Act. The bill would amend the U.S. Code “to treat small businesses, owned by surviving spouses of members of the Armed...
Public Spend Forum Newswire | 2/6/2017
Feb 7, 2017
Lawmakers Introduce Companion Bills to Repeal Davis-Bacon Act
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) have introduced companion bills aimed at repealing the Davis-Bacon Act. The Davis-Bacon Act requires contractors and subcontractors to pay their employees “no less than the locally...
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Perspectives and Insights
I have been interested in the question of getting successful commercial companies, especially tech companies, to sell to the government from the time I was …
The Contractor Accountability and Transparency Act of 2017 (S. 651), introduced by Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., is yet another example of a …
Think you know all about public sector owned professional buying organisations (PBOs) and what they do? Here are ten interesting facts that might just surprise …
Policies and Regulations
It’s no surprise President Trump has been systematically dismantling President Obama’s executive orders, since taking office. Obama himself knew it was a possibility: Frustrated by …
Past performance is an important step in being successful as a federal government contractor. Once firms get into the mid-tier range, they normally have amassed …
A few months back, we published several articles about the very interesting – and somewhat shocking – court case around the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning …