DHS rolls out commercial solutions openings
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)… will use the Commercial Solutions Opening Pilot Program (CSOP) procedures to acquire innovative, commercial items, technologies and services currently […]
Month: April 2020
What does it mean to secure our supply chains?
One of the most misleading popular phrases used today in discussions of economics and economic policy is “supply chains.” The reason is that in the […]
Government pays for inactive contractor labor during Covid-19
Section 3610 of the CARES Act allows agencies to pay contractor labor costs when they are not working due to Covid-19, to to keep the […]
Acquisition headlines
Master list of 120+ Covid-19 innovation initiatives and opportunities. The fiscal multiplier during World War II. Here it is: “0.25, implying an aggregate multiplier of […]
Alchian discovers classified nuclear data in 1954 using stock prices
At RAND in 1954, Armen A. Alchian conducted the world’s first event study to infer the fissile fuel material used in the manufacturing of the […]
Proposal for enterprise-level requirements
The world is accelerating into the future, but the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) requirements system is stuck in the past… This paper proposes a three-pronged […]
GMU report on Covid-19 contract issues: terminations, simplified acquisition, and more
Contractors may worry, for example, about the government terminating contracts for convenience during the COVID-19 crisis. Non-defense contract actions do not indicate a significant uptick […]
Podcast: SOFWERX, innovation, and early adoption with Tambrein Bates
Tambrein Bates joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss his role in helping build an ecosystem of over 40,000 innovators in support of […]
The myth of program funding stability
So why is this so hard? For years, the acquisition community has been saying program and funding stability are essential to acquisition reform. To that […]
Update on federal contract data for Covid-19 — Breakdown and Map
A net total of $1.97 billion has been obligated to federal contractors in response to Covid-19 between February 4 and April 5. Over the course […]
Acquisition headlines
Coronavirus hits defense contractor jobs. Boeing’s Puget Sound shutdown affects 70,000 workers and the P-8 and KC-46 programs. GE cut 2,600 employees (10%). Textron furloughed […]
Cost or pricing data updates and challenges
In a February 2019 report finding that a defense contractor, TransDigm Group, Inc. (TransDigm), overcharged DoD for spare parts under sole-source contracts, the [Inspector General] […]
Can simplified acquisition reduce process times by 90 percent?
Managing purchase actions with FAR 13.5 streamlined protocols and processes to conduct the construct, solicitation, and award of the purchase results in dramatically less “touch […]
Federal contracting response to Covid-19
Federal obligations for the month of March in response to the spread of COVID-19 could top $100 billion if current trends hold, an analyst said […]
A primer on progress payments: impact of increase from 80% to 90% for COVID-19
Recently, the Pentagon announced that it will increase progress payments to bolster contractor cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis. For small businesses, progress payments increased […]