good government | The Contracting Education Academy

December 29, 2016 By AMK

The Small Business Administration needs reforming

Long, lon ago, in an election year far, far away, President Obama had a pretty good idea for streamlining government. In 2012 he proposed consolidating six agencies that focus primarily on business and trade — including the Small Business Administration (SBA) — into one new department.

Mr. Obama argued this would enable small businesses to navigate the dizzying array of programs supposedly designed to help them. Alas, the idea went nowhere, amid opposition from the small business lobby and the small business committees in the House and Senate with which that interest group enjoys a symbiotic relationship.

We recall this forgotten episode only to note that President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the SBA, former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive Linda McMahon, supported Mr. Obama’s notion during her (unsuccessful) campaign for the Senate that year — and to point out that, given what little else is known about her policy views, this history is a modest point in her favor.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-sba-needs-reforming/2016/12/18/b639fc4c-c159-11e6-8422-eac61c0ef74d_story.html

July 15, 2016 By AMK

Increased contract competition contributes to good government

Contracting fairness is not about eliminating government jobs.

That’s the message members of Congress and federal contracting and public policy experts want to make clear. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement when it comes to doing business with the private sector, especially with a looming administration turnover.

“Whoever it is who can do the job best and most cheaply ought to do the job, and we have a hard time trying to make those comparisons,” said Donald Kettl, a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, during a July 8 House subcommittee hearing on contracting fairness.

“But the other thing — and this is a lesson the private sector teaches us — one of our real problems is that contracts don’t manage themselves,” Kettl added. “If you look at sustained studies from [the Office of Management and Budget] and from [the Government Accountability Office] over the years, our acquisitions workforce is not strong enough and is not capable enough to do the jobs we’re asking it to do.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/management/2016/07/increased-contract-competition-contributes-to-government-good/

Long, lon ago, in an election year far, far away, President Obama had a pretty good idea for streamlining government. In 2012 he proposed consolidating six agencies that focus primarily on business and trade — including the Small Business Administration (SBA) — into one new department.

Contracting fairness is not about eliminating government jobs.

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