You’ve heard it before: the way our government buys things is broken. It has been for decades. Which is why in the 90s, President Clinton signed the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA), informing the federal government to give preference for commercially available items.
Since then though, agencies have been undermining its implementation — choosing the path of least resistance (i.e. doing things the way they’ve always been done).
But an over-reliance on customized contracts has left critical defense and infrastructure projects over budget and past the original delivery date.
While there are new companies that could (and have already proven to) build better and faster, custom contracts include burdensome government accounting processes and audit requirements not customary in commercial contracting — not to mention handing over to the government IP rights. Oftentimes, the commercial provider will simply pass on bidding for the project altogether.
This leads to taxpayer waste and leaves our government (oftentimes our warfighters) behind the innovation curve.
Three new executive orders from President Trump look to stamp out this inefficiency and puts the best products to work for our country.
- Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base, directs a comprehensive overhaul of the DOD’s acquisition processes including prioritizing commercial solutions, leveraging existing authorities like Other Transactions Authority, and rewarding risk taking.
- Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement, directs a comprehensive overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).
- Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts, mandates that federal agencies prioritize the procurement of commercially available products and services over custom, non-commercial alternatives to reduce costs and enhance efficiency.
Together these EO’s, including the Defense mandate to review contracts that are 15 percent over budget or 15 percent behind schedule, will rejuvenate the way the government works and offer our country’s greatest builders renewed chances to work with the federal government.
Execution will be key – but this series of EOs has fundamentally shifted the burden back to the government to explain why they aren’t choosing an available commercial item – and opens the door wider to a New Golden Age of America.
