Page 8 - FCW, August 2019

Trending
FAR tweaked
in time for
fall buying
Managers of the biggest government- wide acquisition contracts expect that a recent change to the Federal Acquisition Regulation will make agencies’ end-of-fiscal-year spending run a little smoother.
The Defense Department, General Services Administration and NASA issued an amendment to the FAR that eliminates the need for federal agencies to get an interagency acquisition determination when they buy goods and services from GWACs. According to the Federal Register filing, the rule was approved in May and went into effect on June 5.
Bill Zielinski, assistant commis- sioner of the Office of IT Category at GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said the change reduces the admin- istrative burden for agencies buying through GSA’s IT Schedule 70, GWACs such as 8(a) STARS 2 and Alliant 2, and the agency’s assisted acquisition programs.
Agencies “can now identify and quickly use GSA IT Category contracts and acquisition solutions, especially as they embark on their end-of-year IT spending and acquisition efforts,” he wrote in a blog post.
Joanne Woytek, program manager for NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise- Wide Procurement GWAC, described the change as a positive move. Although the previous FAR wording wasn’t hard for agencies to navigate, the new language “removes a step in the acquisition process that was unnecessary.”
She said SEWP is preparing for a busy federal buying season by adding a customer service staff member and will extend SEWP’s office hours beginning in August.
386,000 was the National Background Investigations Bureau’s security-clearance backlog as of late July
House NDAA includes prohibition on OPM merger
The House passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would block the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate the Office of Personnel Management and transfer its functions to the General Services Administration and the White House.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) sponsored the amendment, which passed on a vote of 247-182 on July 11 with 15 Republicans, including Rep. Will
However, Hice argued that the “amendment does nothing to help OPM’s mission and closes options” to improve the performance of the beleaguered agency.
The text of the amendment not only blocks the closing of OPM but also any transfer, transition, merger or consolidation of functions, IT systems, programs or staff. It’s not clear whether the amendment or other legislative efforts to block the proposed merger would necessarily keep OPM from
Hurd (Texas), supporting “We have not seen anything, unfortunately, from the administration to convince us that any part of this plan is a good idea and would make our government more effective and efficient,” Connolly said in floor
the measure.
remarks on July 10.
Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) opposed
Connolly’s amendment but nevertheless noted that the administration “has not shown that \\\[the merger\\\] is an effective way to address the many problems that are facing OPM.” He added that “despite repeated requests for legal analysis on the administrative authorities and cost/ benefit analysis, the Oversight and Reform Committee continues to wait for supporting information.”
plans and background investigations is nearing its end of life.
Although OPM has a plan to move away from expensive mainframe systems, the contracting documents state that “stabilizing the current mainframe infrastructure is an initial step to implementing those modernization plans and OPM cannot neglect legacy infrastructure needs in the process.”
— Adam Mazmanian
“We have not seen anything, unfor- tunately, from the administration to convince us that any part of this plan is a good idea.”
— REP. GERRY CONNOLLY
outsourcing IT acquisitions to GSA, such as the mainframe refresh currently in development.
According to contracting documents posted on GitHub, the IBM mainframe hardware that OPM uses to run critical workloads related to federal retirement
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4:00 PM · Jul 22, 2019
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August 2019 FCW.COM
— Mark Rockwell