Trump administration 2.0: Driving reform in federal procurement 

The Trump administration has moved quickly to promote its policy and fiscal priorities. In only four months, the administration has issued over 200 executive orders (EOs), directives and proclamations intended to align and drive executive branch agencies’ execution of the administration’s policy and fiscal priorities. 

A number of the EOs and directives have addressed how the government spends its money by addressing specific categories or types of federal contracts and grants. Indeed, the administration has been very busy affecting WHAT the federal government buys. However, a few significant recent executive orders also address the policies and procedures for HOW the federal government buys the goods and services it needs: 

• Executive Order 14275, Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement 
• Executive Order 14271, Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts 
• Executive Order 14265, Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base 
• Executive Order 14240, Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement  

These recent acquisition-related executive orders set up the potential for significant changes down the road in how the federal government buys goods and services, and contractors need to stay aware of the progress of these changes and be prepared to adjust their programs to ensure they can deliver timely the goods and services required to meet the government’s needs. For now, contractors should avoid premature shifts until details fully crystallize. These major reforms will take time, and the initial instructions included in the directives are for agencies to start by better understanding the contract landscape in their respective organizations. Even as compliance requirements change, the core accounting processes and the basic need to understand your costs will remain as important as ever. For the immediate future, the best advice is to keep open lines of communication with government counterparts in the program offices and with contracting officers, and to pay close attention to contract performance requirements, because, ultimately, that is what contractors are accountable for.