Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2019

Status

Working

Abstract

This paper/chapter, presented at the Thomson Reuters Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (covering 2018), attempts to identify the key evolving trends and issues in U.S. federal procurement for 2018 and beyond. Consistent with prior practice, this chapter offers extensive coverage of the federal procurement, grant, and defense spending trends and attempts to predict what lies ahead, particularly with regard to legislative and executive activity. This year's paper discusses, among other things, the high degree of uncertainty currently being experienced in the public procurement sphere, dramatic increases to the micro-purchase and simplified acquisition thresholds, the work of the Congressionally-mandated Section 809 and 813 Panels, the proliferation (and new guidance related to) other transactions (OT’s) and experimental authorities,the concerning state of the defense industrial base and critical under-investment in infrastructure, the Defense Acquisition University's new Adaptive Acquisition Framework and Contracting Cone, human capital and the acquisition workforce, available data for assessing the performance of the acquisition system, the leadership vacuum at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), the concept of "Agile BS," and other potential trends.

GW Paper Series

GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2019-20; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2019-20

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Law Commons

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