Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

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

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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

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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/ 

Congress aims to redefine ‘subcontract’

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If an agreement qualifies as a “subcontract” under a government contract, then it may be subject to certain flow-down, compliance, and reporting requirements.  These requirements are intended to protect the government’s interests, and have significant ramifications for contractors, e.g., increasing transaction costs, expanding potential areas of exposure.

These compliance obligations and risks can even deter some companies from performing under government contracts, especially those companies offering commercial items.

Currently, there is no uniform definition of “subcontract” in the applicable procurement regulations or in the procurement chapters under Titles 10 and 41 of the U.S. Code.  Indeed, there are more than twenty varying definitions of “subcontract” in the FAR and DFARS, with many clauses failing to specify which definition applies.  Now Congress is looking to address this lack of uniformity through the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Keep reading this article at: https://www.insidegovernmentcontracts.com/2018/06/congress-aims-to-redefine-the-subcontract/

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

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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/ 

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