Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Training
    • Class Registration
    • On-demand Training
    • GTPAC COVID-19 Resource Page
    • Veterans Verification Video
    • Other Training Audio & Video
  • Useful Links
  • Team Directory
    • Albany Counselor
    • Atlanta Counselors
    • Augusta Counselor
    • Carrollton Counselor
    • Columbus Counselor
    • Gainesville Counselor
    • Savannah Counselor
    • Warner Robins Counselor
  • Directions
    • Atlanta – Training Facility
    • Atlanta – Office
    • Albany
    • Augusta
    • Carrollton
    • Columbus
    • Gainesville
    • Savannah
    • Warner Robins
  • COVID-19
  • New Client Application
  • Contact Us

Industry group seeks to highlight impact of insourcing on small businesses

May 12, 2010 By ei2admin

A group of small business federal contractors, led by the government’s former top career procurement official, has come together to put a human face on the Obama administration’s effort to bring contracted jobs back into agencies.

Washington law firm Venable LLP announced Friday the formation of the Small Business Coalition for Fair Contracting. Composed of Venable clients and other contractors, the group argues the push to insource thousands of contractor positions will have severe repercussions for small businesses.

The coalition plans to spend the next several months talking to lawmakers and federal officials about the “unintended consequences” of insourcing for small businesses, said Venable partner Rob Burton, who is spearheading the initiative.

“The timing of this insourcing initiative, in view of the economy and the administration’s desire to create more jobs, is not good,” said Burton, who served a deputy administrator at the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy during the administration of George W. Bush. “Pulling jobs out of the private sector in this economy is not good public policy.”

While well intentioned, Burton said insourcing threatens to take work away from hundreds of small entrepreneurs.

He said the initiative already has forced small contractors across the nation to reduce the scope of their operations as their contracts are canceled and employees are hired into government jobs. One Venable small business client recently lost 20 percent of its workforce when its contract was insourced and the Defense Department hired many of its employees, according to Burton.

“I’ve also have heard about companies going out of business,” he said.

OMB did not respond to a request for comment about the coalition.

President Obama came to office pledging to reduce the government’s reliance on contractors to perform core services. Last summer, the administration told agencies to cut their overall contracting budgets by 7 percent and to launch pilot insourcing programs. In late April, agencies submitted reports to OMB detailing the results of the programs. OMB is in the process of reviewing those reports.

“It’s not a healthy situation,” OFPP Administrator Daniel Gordon said in a March interview with Government Executive. “There are way too many stories where it looks like the government has lost control of its own operations.”

The insourcing push has been most pronounced at Defense, which plans to reduce its percentage of support service contractors from 39 percent of the workforce to the pre-2001 level of 26 percent. The Pentagon plans to replace those contractors during the next five years with 39,000 new full-time government employees, 20,000 of whom would be acquisition professionals.

Defense officials plan to insource contracted services in areas such as logistics support of aviation systems, safety engineering, cost accounting, anti-terrorism training and religious support. The plan has been heavily criticized in recent weeks by industry groups, who argue the initiative is poorly planned and driven by quotas.

“I know of one company [whose employees were] given 48 hours to join the [Defense] workforce,” Burton said.

The coalition only has a handful of members at this point, but Burton said interest has been growing rapidly. The group plans to form a steering committee in the next few weeks, in time to issue comments on the administration’s proposed guidance on work that is inherently governmental. Comments are due on the policy by June 1.

The coalition also plans to push for more small businesses procurement opportunities. In fiscal 2008, small businesses received 21.5 percent of all federal prime contracting dollars. The federal statutory goal is 23 percent.

– By Robert Brodsky – May 10, 2010 – (C) 2010 BY NATIONAL JOURNAL GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: federal contracting, government contracting, government trends, market research, small business

Recent Posts

  • OMB releases guidance related to small business goals
  • Are verbal agreements good enough for government contractors?
  • OMB issues guidance on impact of injunction on government contractor vaccine mandate
  • CMMC 2.0 simplifies requirements but raises risks for government contractors
  • OFCCP launches contractor portal initiating AAP verification program

Popular Topics

8(a) abuse Army bid protest budget budget cuts certification construction contract awards contracting opportunities cybersecurity DoD DOJ False Claims Act FAR federal contracting federal contracts fraud GAO Georgia Tech government contracting government contract training government trends GSA GSA Schedule GTPAC HUBZone innovation IT Justice Dept. marketing NDAA OMB SBA SDVOSB set-aside small business small business goals spending subcontracting technology VA veteran owned business VOSB wosb

Contracting News

OMB releases guidance related to small business goals

OMB issues guidance on impact of injunction on government contractor vaccine mandate

Changes coming to DOD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification under CMMC 2.0

Judge issues nationwide injunction halting enforcement of COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Nondisplacement of qualified workers is back, but with changes

Read More

Contracting Tips

Are verbal agreements good enough for government contractors?

CMMC 2.0 simplifies requirements but raises risks for government contractors

OFCCP launches contractor portal initiating AAP verification program

GAO rules that DoD may not require small business Joint Venture itself hold facility security clearance

Terminations for convenience clauses vs. mutual termination clauses

Read More

GTPAC News

VA direct access program events in 2022

Sandia National Laboratories seeks small business suppliers

Navy OSBP hosting DCAA overview (part 2) event Jan. 12, 2022

Navy OSBP hosting cybersecurity “ask me anything” event Dec. 16th

State of Georgia hosting supplier systems training on January 26, 2022

Read More

Georgia Tech News

Undergraduate enrollment growth reflects inclusive excellence

Georgia Tech delivers $4 billion in economic impact to the State of Georgia

Georgia Tech awards first round of seed grants to support team-based research

Georgia Tech announces inaugural Associate Vice President of Corporate Engagement

DoD funds Georgia Tech to enhance U.S. hypersonics capabilities

Read More

  • SAM.gov registration is free, and help with SAM is free, too
APTAC RSS Twitter GTPAC - 30th Year of Service

Copyright © 2022 · Georgia Tech - Enterprise Innovation Institute