Doing business with the federal government is tough, especially for small businesses. So it is appropriate that there are special rules and procedures to help these businesses -- which often offer exceptional agility and innovation -- navigate the federal market.
While some of the President's Management Agenda initiatives, such as e-government, move forward impressively, others are struggling. The President's Competitive Sourcing initiative is awash in a sea of fear, mythology and parochial political assaults that ignore the reality of the process and the proven benefits of competition. And strategic human capital planning -- which involves some real civil service reform and is inextricably linked to the rest of the agenda -- is stuck in first gear.
The Navy is seriously considering a new policy that would limit sharply its ability to use General Services Administration schedules for support services. The policy would explicitly prohibit using non-Navy contracting vehicles unless the head of the contracting agency approves it. A similar policy is reportedly being discussed among Air Force officials.
Using sound-bite rhetoric and deliberate misinformation, opponents of competitive sourcing are simultaneously assaulting the Office of Management and Budget's May 29 revisions to Circular A-76 and engaging in guerrilla campaign tactics to ban competition, agency by agency, through legislation.
For the first time, the House Armed Services Committee has given a single subcommittee jurisdiction over Defense Department information technology policies and spending. This subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., deserves credit for its focus on the department's IT strategies and management.
The House Government Reform Committee has taken another important step in improving the government's acquisition system and practices: It approved May 7 the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003, sponsored by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va.
In a recent letter to Mitch Daniels, director of the Office of Management and Budget, a group of senators sharply criticized the administration's proposal to allow best-value contracting on a small portion of public-private competitions. Instead, the senators argued, public-private competitions should be based on "a combination of cost and quality."
As the administration rolls out its final revisions to the Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-76, the warfare over competitive sourcing is certain to intensify.
<FONT SIZE=2>The January release of two proposed rules on contract bundling again draws attention to the debate over procurement strategies and their impact on small business. But the new rules are not the only manifestation of that focus. </FONT>
