How much discretion in discretionary spending?

The federal budget is divided into mandatory spending, discretionary spending, spending that comes from certain trust funds, and a few more sundry categories. Every year government contractors excitedly look to the new budget to glean some guidance as to how much might be spent on contracts, or what we call contractor-addressable spending. Addressable spending includes spending on existing contracts as well as new ones. Continue reading…

Are structured data reasonably structured?

There's a wealth of available government procurement data out there. Millions of contract actions are reported yearly to the Federal Procurement Data System. Hundreds of thousands of solicitations and other notices reach us annually through the FedBizOpps platform. This wealth of procurement information represents another kind of "big data" challenge. Continue reading…

When is procurement reform really reform?

There are regular declarations of "procurement reform" in federal acquisition that are broadcast from the Congress, the White House, large federal agencies, and special interest groups. Are those pronouncements true reform? Maybe. Though most definitions of reform suggest that it is making changes to improve an institution. Black's Law Dictionary states the purpose of reform is "to correct, rectify, amend, remodel." The so-called reform memos typically do none of that. I submit that what the reform we hear about makes no changes at the most fundamental level of procurement. Continue reading…