Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Good news for new tech: Panel recommends DoD IT acquisition reform

By

As information technology (IT) companies have known for years, the U.S. government regularly acquires inferior technology, often slowly and at high prices. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which stands to benefit the most from state-of-the-art technology, is encumbered by a web of complex and archaic procurement regulations. For emerging technology companies looking to serve the government, DoD’s procurement approach can be a major source of frustration, discouraging many of them from entering the federal arena altogether.

Fortunately, meaningful reform may be on the horizon. The Section 809 Panel, a group tasked by the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act to identify ways to improve the defense acquisition system, has recently set forth three recommendations aimed at streamlining DoD’s IT procurement process. These IT-focused recommendations are found in Section 3 of the panel’s Volume 3 Report, at numbers 43 through 45. The panel recommended the following:

  • Rec. 43: Revise acquisition regulations to enable more flexible and effective procurement of consumption-based solutions.
  • Rec. 44: Exempt DoD from Clinger-Cohen Act provisions in Title 40.
  • Rec. 45: Create a pilot program for contracting directly with IT consultants through an online talent marketplace.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/good-news-for-new-tech-panel-recommends-46249/

The Air Force handed out 242 contracts in two weeks, and it might change everything

By

The Air Force awarded a contract in three minutes. That’s astronomically shorter than the three months it usually takes the service to award a small business contract.

The breakneck pace was thanks to the Air Force’s Pitch Day, which awarded 51 contracts to companies that have little or no experience with the military. The service doled out $3.5 million to those small businesses on Wednesday — each in 15 minutes or less. The first installments of the companies’ contracts were in their bank accounts almost immediately.

While Pitch Day signifies a momentous increase in acquisition speed, it also indicates a sea change in the way the Air Force looks at the future of its industrial base and who it spends its money on.

“Our goal in the Air Force is to start expanding the industry base again,” Will Roper, Air Force assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, told reporters Thursday. “That is my moonshot for this year. We’ve got to do it on two sides: One strategy for the primes, one strategy for the dual-use or commercial companies.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/air-force/2019/03/the-air-force-just-handed-out-242-contracts-in-two-weeks-and-it-might-change-everything/

‘Eliminate most DoD small business set-asides,’ says Section 809 Panel

By

The Section 809 Panel has recommended that Congress eliminate most small business set-asides for DoD acquisitions.

The Panel would replace the longstanding set-aside system with a meager five percent small business price preference.

For small government contractors, this recommendation is the policy equivalent of a five-alarm fire. Small contractors may need to fight hard to save the set-aside system.

Get ready for a battle.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/statutes-and-regulations/eliminate-most-dod-small-business-set-asides-says-section-809-panel/

Find all of the Section 809 Panel’s reports here: https://section809panel.org/media/updates/

5 ‘bold’ recommendations to improve DoD acquisition

By

Congress and the Defense Department are paying close attention to recommendations coming from the Section 809 panel to change the military’s acquisition process.

The House and Senate Armed Service committees added every idea from the group’s May 2017 interim report as well as many of the recommendations from the panel’s January 2018 volume one report to recent Defense authorization bills, said David Drabkin, the panel’s chairman.

“During this process, we have met frequently with both the House Armed Services Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and on occasion we have met with the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee and Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Defense, and have worked closely with the department as you can see on the panel, three of the department’s acquisition executives have been a part of the panel itself,” Drabkin said Tuesday during the roll out of the volume 3 recommendations in Washington, D.C. “We can’t assure Congress will accept our work, but we have an indication that they are very interested. As you look around the room, you can see members from the staff of the HASC and SASC sitting in the meeting today.”

So with the congressionally-mandated group of public-private sector experts issuing their third and final set of recommendations on Jan. 15th detailing 58 new ones across 13 sections, the likelihood of many of these proposals advancing is good. In all, the panel made 93 recommendations, provide implementation plans and legislative language across more than 1,000 pages and three volumes of work since 2016.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition/2019/01/5-bold-recommendations-to-improve-dod-acquisition/

See the 809 Panel’s final report here: 

See the 809 Panel’s earlier reports here: https://section809panel.org/media/updates/ 

How to leverage the government’s focus on transformation

By

Vendors with truly transformational technologies may soon find more receptive ears in the public sector, as senior IT executives wrestle with topics from acquisition reform to creating an environment that will attract the workforce of tomorrow into today’s government.

In late August, a number of public and private sector officials met in DC for a series of brief conversations on government IT and procurement, focusing on transformation. These conversations considered how to use innovation for everything from protecting critical assets to reforming acquisition methods.

Three key conversations dealt with how to consolidate procurement schedules, collaboration for technology modernization, and making government more attractive to younger prospective employees.

Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2018/09/14/insights-shaker-government-transformation.aspx

Pentagon moves to cut procurement red tape in a bid to catch up with technology

By

The defense acquisition bureaucracy inside the Pentagon is being downsized from 17 to eight offices. Senior civilian management positions are being pared down from 353 to 233, and military posts from 61 to 42. Contracts that required 83 checks and approvals will need just 22. Weapon systems that were centrally managed by the Pentagon are being turned over to the military services.

“We are rethinking how we do business,” Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, told reporters on July 27th.

With China and Russia threatening to out-innovate the United States in areas like advanced missiles, additive manufacturing, space weapons and artificial intelligence, the Pentagon is not just in a competition against adversaries but also in a race against itself.

How the Pentagon buys technology in the digital age has long been a cause for concern and is a major theme in the defense policy bill for fiscal year 2019 that a House-Senate conference passed last week. The bill includes dozens of provisions for “rapid innovation,” “rapid prototyping” and “rapid acquisition.”

Keep reading this article at: https://spacenews.com/pentagon-moves-to-cut-procurement-red-tape-in-a-bid-to-catch-up-with-technology/

Advancing threats necessitate new approach to DoD technology acquisition

By

The global ubiquity of technology means that U.S. military superiority is becoming more challenging to maintain. Players large and small have access to sophisticated technology that can quickly match the United States’ capabilities in many areas.

Remote monitoring technologies, battlefield communications hardware, network infiltration devices and tactical weaponry are among the groups of unprecedented tools that will continue to advance adversarial threats if the process for more rapidly identifying and implementing new capabilities does not change. Although adversarial warfighting innovations are becoming more commonplace in defense forces around the world, the Defense Department is expanding the use of highly effective collaborative methods to help bridge its technological gaps and advance its mission.

The Time Lag of Traditional Acquisition

The old way of doing business for the Pentagon—with large companies bidding on contracts that can take years to complete—simply cannot move quickly enough to meet the threats that the U.S. is facing today and will face into the future. Whereas many private-sector enterprises can simply vet and purchase tools as soon as they become available on the market, federal government agencies like Defense are not afforded the same luxury.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2018/06/advancing-threats-necessitate-new-approach-defense-technology-acquisition/148699/

Latest effort to reform DoD acquisition borrows heavily from expert panel’s recommendations

By

For the fourth year in a row, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is pushing a package of legislation that he says will modernize and accelerate the Defense acquisition system.

This year’s version includes at least a couple of key differences though. For one, it attempts to prod the Defense Department to implement the changes Congress has already passed as part of prior-year reform bills.

For another, most of the changes Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) is proposing were first recommended by the Section 809 Panel, an 18-member team of acquisition experts Congress commissioned in 2017 to provide advice on how to streamline the system.

Among the traits shared by the Thornberry bill and the recommendations the 809 panel has already delivered is an emphasis on scraping years of detritus from the federal statutes that govern the acquisition system.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense-main/2018/04/house-chairmans-latest-effort-to-reform-dod-acquisition-borrows-heavily-from-expert-panels-recommendations/ 

Policy shift: DoD is pushing major program management back to the military

By

The Pentagon has steadily been pushing milestone authority for major defense programs to the individual military services, but shifting personnel down from the Office of the Secretary of Defense will take longer.

At a Dec. 7 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, logistics and technology, or AT&L, said her intention is to continue to hand off the day-to-day running of programs to the services, preferring her office serve as a kind of high-level group providing overall guidance.

“AT&L needs to be the strategic body with focus across the board, driving affordability and accountability, reducing timelines, and equipping the Services to execute their programs,” Lord said in prepared testimony, adding that the Defense Department awards an average of 1,800 new contracts a day and 36,000 delivery/task orders a day.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/pentagon/2017/12/11/policy-shift-dod-is-pushing-major-program-management-back-to-the-military/

GSA invites industry comment by Jan. 9th on upcoming e-commerce portals

By

In an effort to create a new online market for government contracts, the General Services Administration (“GSA”) has invited industry to comment on the development and design of e-commerce portals for commercial procurements.

GSA’s request for comments was published on December 15, 2017.  This comment period provides a valuable opportunity for contractors to advise GSA on what regulations and business practices should apply to e-commerce portals, which will likely serve as a platform for billions of dollars’ worth of government business.

GSA’s announcement comes only days after the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2018 (“2018 NDAA” or the “Act”), which included an overhaul of the commercial item procurement system and directed GSA to develop e-commerce systems.  Pursuant to Section 846(a) of the Act, GSA must establish e-commerce portals “for the purposes of enhancing competition, expediting procurement, enabling market research, and ensuring reasonable pricing of commercial products.”  2018 NDAA § 846(a).  GSA has 90 days to implement “phase I” of Section 846, under which GSA must develop a plan and schedule for creating e-commerce portals.  2018 NDAA § 846(c)(1).

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2017/12/7399/

Contracting News

Read More

Contracting Tips

Read More

GTPAC News

Read More

Georgia Tech News

Read More