Cutting Red Tape From Procurement Processes and Expanding Access to New Contractors Will Accelerate Federal IT Modernization
The federal procurement process is notoriously slow, complex, and prohibitive to new contractors not already familiar with its intricacies. To address these issues, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs—the primary oversight committee with jurisdiction over matters related to government operations—recently approved the Advancing Government Innovation with Leading-Edge Procurement Act, or AGILE Procurement Act, which aims to improve how the federal government acquires technology by reducing red tape, expanding access to new contractors, and training acquisition staff, and offers a much-needed opportunity to accelerate federal IT modernization. Congress should ensure this legislation gets to President Biden’s desk before the end of the year.
Given how deeply federal agencies rely on contractors, particularly for IT, the complexity of federal procurement presents a problem. Federal agencies spend over 80 percent of their IT budgets on contracting, which will likely increase as they continue to invest in cloud, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. Critics may argue that the federal government is too dependent on contractors. And while federal agencies certainly need to invest in IT upskilling for its permanent staff, right now there are not enough federal employees with suitable skills to execute IT modernization efforts, thus making contract work necessary. This skills gap extends to federal acquisition staff, who often possess neither the training nor knowledge to properly evaluate the wide variety of commercial IT solutions.
The U.S. Digital Service and 18F teams that provide technical support to federal agencies are vital assets but too small—around 300 staff across both organizations compared to thousands of federal contractors—to meet the full demands of federal IT modernization. Contractors with training, expertise, and experience delivering cybersecurity, cloud, and other IT solutions will be critical over the next few years.
A bipartisan group of senators introduced the AGILE Procurement Act to modernize the federal procurement process and improve the quality of acquisitions. The proposed legislation includes tasking the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)—the department that provides direction around federal procurement policies, regulations, and procedures—with identifying alternative, streamlined procurement methods that “shorten the procurement cycle to timely meet agency technology requirements,” such as expediting the request for proposal (RFP) review process or utilizing automation to process contractor bids and paperwork.
The act also recognizes the “need for a Federal acquisition workforce with an understanding of technology and related procurement considerations” and seeks to establish the Pathways to Procurement Pilot Program within the Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI), an organization focusing on the professional development of the federal acquisition workforce, to attract new IT talent. The act further requires FAI to offer experiential learning that expands federal procurement professionals’ skills and knowledge around IT solutions, including commercially available off-the-shelf technologies.
Additionally, the legislation explains that “the number of Federal contractors receiving contract awards is shrinking, particularly with regard to new and small companies,” and that this restrictive access to federal work could hinder access to innovative commercial technologies.
To accomplish greater diversity and access to federal contract awards, the act proposes a working group composed of key federal agencies engaging with industry experts to develop recommendations that reduce barriers to entry for entities seeking to do business with the federal government. This working group could go a step further and report on how the AGILE Procurement Act resulted in a more diversified pool of federal contractors and demonstrate how the commercial technologies secured from contractor work support agency goals.
All-in-all, the AGILE Procurement Act offers an opportunity to improve federal IT procurement and thus accelerate IT modernization overall. There’s undoubtedly more work to be done outside of what’s included in the proposed legislation—for example, SAM.gov, the federal awards website that companies must register with to do business with the government, continues to offer contractors a poor user experience—but the AGILE Procurement Act is an essential step in the right direction.
