Federal contracting shops, including government wide acquisition vehicles and the General Services Administration, are preparing for an uptick in orders from agencies in the coming days as they get back up to speed following the shutdown.
Source: What’s next for procurement after the shutdown? — FCW
Federal agencies shuttered due to the shutdown sent out a second round of furlough notices in recent days, while the Office of Personnel Management updated guidance regarding leave accrual, retirement benefits and health care enrollment.
Source: Second month of furlough brings changes for workforce — FCW
An unlikely band of revolutionaries has proposed major changes in how the Department of Defense chooses what contractors to do business with. These change agents are members of the Section 809 panel on streamlining and codifying acquisition regulations, set up by Congress in 2016. They include a number of well-known names in the contracting world, several of whom I have known since myself serving as the administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the nineties. That latter group includes David Drabkin, the committee chair (who worked on acquisition reform at DOD as a civil servant and later spent many years at GSA); retired Gen. Darryl Scott (maybe the best contracting professional I ever met — I wanted him to be my successor, but that was impossible while he was in uniform); Allan Burman (my predecessor); and Elliott Branch (head of contracting at the Navy).
Source: DOD’s Section 809 panel proposes a revolution in contracting — FCW
The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that the government shutdown, now over a month old, is hampering the ability of the agency to respond to contract solicitations.
The General Services Administration plans to consolidate dozens of its buying schedules across product areas including IT and services to reduce duplication and overlap, the agency announced Nov. 27.
A more-nimble and recently expanded acquisition vehicle is in danger of becoming an overused “go-to” solution for agencies — and earning congressional scrutiny as a result — two leading acquisition officials said.
Source: OTAs could see more limits — FCW
The Department of Homeland Security remains committed to issuing the successor vehicle to its $22 billion IT services contract by the end of the calendar year.
Source: DHS EAGLE III moving ahead — FCW
Recently I did a webinar at the request of the General Services Administration’s Acquisition Gateway for professional services, as part of their Spotlight training series, on the new micropurchase threshold. As I have blogged before, the threshold has been raised to $10,000 for civilian agencies and, through a strange anomaly that hopefully will be corrected soon, to $6,000 for the Department of Defense.
Source: How contracting officers want to use the new micropurchase threshold — FCW
Tech companies are facing protests internally from workers and externally from activists about doing for government amid controversial policies like ‘zero tolerance’ for illegal immigration.
Source: DHS contractors face protests – on the streets — FCW
The battle over the General Services Administration’s $15 billion Alliant 2 Small Business contract for IT products and services continues to be tied up in court, but so far GSA is on a winning streak.
Source: Court starts clearing out protests against Alliant 2 Small Business — FCW