Emerging Policy and Practice Issues (2018)

Abstract

This paper/chapter, presented at the West Government Contracts Year in Review Conference (covering 2017), attempts to identify the key trends and issues in U.S. federal procurement for 2017. 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. The paper discusses, in addition to a deep dive into the spending data, the surprisingly slow pace of acquisition regulation promulgation, lack of progress with regard to infrastructure, changes to DoD's acquisition leadership and the USD(AT&L) reorganization, the OFPP leadership vacuum, outsourcing of portions of the DCAA audit function, the RAND Bid Protest report, post-award contract administration, and other potential trends.

Keywords: Government Contracts, Public Procurement, Defense, Acquisition Workforce, Outsourcing, Procurement Spending, Infrastructure, performance measures, Grants, Trump Administration, Deregulation, Compliance, RAND protest report, Contract Administration

JEL Classification: H42, H56, H57, K12