A push for more competition

Departments will likely soon feel more pressure from policy-makers to buy more products and services through competitive bids, rather than sole-source contracts.

The federal government has competed approximately 64 percent of its procurements (based on dollar value) each year since fiscal 2005, although total procurement spending has increased from $371.8 billion in fiscal 2005, according to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

Members of Congress and the Bush administration’s chief procurement official said they believe agencies can do more, and they are looking for new ways to push agencies along.

Read the story: FCW.com News - A push for more competition

Bill would halt competitions for a year

A House appropriations bill in its early stages seeks to block use of the public/private competition system for a year and let next president deal with the issue, a House member has said.

Rep. José Serrano (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Financial Services and General Government appropriations subcommittee, said June 17 the governmentwide provision would halt "this administration’s controversial and detrimental federal workforce program.”

Read the story: FCW.com News - Bill would halt competitions for a year

Obama, McCain want spending transparency

Agencies might have to open more of their contracting activities for public scrutiny now that the presumptive presidential nominees of both major parties have declared their support for a bill to make the federal government more transparent. But a procurement expert said the bill might slow down the procurement process if agencies become more cautious about awarding contracts.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee, introduced the bill, called the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act (S. 3077). Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee, was an original co-sponsor of the legislation.

Read the story: FCW.com News - Obama, McCain want spending transparency

GSA: Congress should broaden state, local access to GSA contracts

As the Senate considers legislation that would open several General Services Administration contracts to state and local agencies, a top GSA official said today that the measure should include more opportunities.

The Local Preparedness Acquisition Act, which the Senate might vote on this week, would open GSA’s Schedule 84 for security and law enforcement products and services to state and local governments. The House passed a similar bill in December.

Currently, those agencies can only use the schedule contracts through cooperative purchasing agreements or when they’re recovering from a disaster.

Jim Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said state and local agencies should have had access long ago to GSA’s contracts and that the bill should extend beyond Schedule 84 and even beyond state and local governments.


Read the story: FCW.com News - GSA: Congress should broaden state, local access to GSA contracts

Groups push Senate for more open government

Senate leaders received a letter today from 100 groups asking them to pass the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National (OPEN) Government Act and restore confidence in government.

“The public’s confidence in the executive branch has reached a dramatic low point,” the groups said in the letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Read rest of the story: FCW.com News - Groups push Senate for more open government

Critics say contracting bill could do harm

More oversight will not correct the deep cause of the government’s contracting problems, which is a shortage of qualified federal contracting officials, some government and industry critics say.

Opponents of a contracting reform bill that the House passed March 15 urged lawmakers to pay more attention to the government’s understaffed contracting workforce. With the government struggling to retain acquisition employees and fill empty positions, the Democratic-sponsored Accountability in Contracting Act would add more restrictions that could hinder recruitment, said Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s ranking member.

Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) introduced the contracting legislation, which mainly targets no-bid contracts. “Members are starting to ask what went wrong and to insist on accountability,” he said.

Read rest of the story: FCW.com News - Critics say contracting bill could do harm

Contracting associations object to new acquisition bill

Nearly a dozen government-contracting associations have objected to contracting oversight legislation that would require quarterly reports on contracting charges and restrictions on cost-reimbursement contracts. The organizations contend the bill puts all contractors in a bad light.

Moreover, the 11 associations forming the Acquisition Reform Working Group believe they had no chance to give input on the bill because it was introduced on a Tuesday and approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on a Thursday. The full House could vote on the measure next week, according to the Information Technology Association of America.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the committee’s chairman, introduced the Accountability in Contracting Act March 6.

Read rest of the story: FCW.com News - Contracting associations object to new acquisition bill

Contracting continues to catch Congress' eye

A new bill from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) attacks bad government contracting practices and proposes sweeping reforms.

The legislation (S. 606) aims to stop what Dorgan called “outrageous rip-offs of the American taxpayer,” including huge no-bid contracts and little accountability.

Read rest of the story: FCW.com News - Contracting continues to catch Congress' eye

House panel approves whistle-blower, transparency bills

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved two bills Feb. 14 that would give federal employees who expose wrongdoing new protections and impose new restrictions on awarding federal contracts.

The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (H.R. 985) would establish new procedures to prevent retaliation against federal employees who report wrongdoing to authorities. The other measure, the Executive Branch Reform Act (H.R. 984), seeks to increase transparency and limit the influence of special interests in the executive branch.

Read rest of the story: FCW.com News - House panel approves whistle-blower, transparency bills

Seeking more transparency, senators turn to Web

An ethics reform bill may make it easier for citizens to watch Congress from their laptop computers.

Senators considering reforms for more accountability and transparency are advocating use of the Web as a means of opening their work to the public.

Read rest of the story: FCW.com News - Seeking more transparency, senators turn to Web

IRS uses Web to make up for lost time

The Internal Revenue Service is pushing taxpayers to the Web for the latest filing information after the 109th Congress passed last-minute legislation that delayed the IRS’ ability to distribute paper instructions for the tax filing season.

The previous Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act the day before it adjourned. The bill renews and extends tax cuts, including the college tuition deduction and the research and development tax credit.

But the information is not on the IRS documents already at the printer.

“Unless taxpayers are willing to get on the Internet and search, they may never know that we extended these [tax] incentives in the nick of time,” said Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, just before Congress adjourned last year.

IRS Commissioner Mark Everson wrote in a Dec. 5, 2006, letter to Baucus that the individual tax form, Form 1040, was already being printed. Tax legislation passed after Oct. 31 risks hindering the IRS’ ability to meet tax filing season needs, such as distributing up-to-date information and on-time returns. He estimated that updating the forms would cost more than $2 million.

Read the rest of the story: FCW.com News - IRS uses Web to make up for lost time