"The Next Steps in Services Acquisition Reform: Learning from the past, Preparing for the future"

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA-11^th) announced today that on Tuesday, May 22, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy will conduct an oversight hearing to examine services acquisition within the federal government.

The hearing will address and examine the progress of the acquisition reform initiatives undertaken in the early to mid-90s. The goal of this hearing is to assess next steps in services acquisition reform.

"Streamlining, cost savings, access to technological advancements, and reduced procurement cycles have dramatically improved the quality of products and services purchased by the federal government," Davis said. "The Subcommittee intends to review the success or failure of implementation efforts government-wide. This hearing also will examine what subsequent legislation is necessary to further streamline procurement and achieve greater utilization of commercial best practices."

The federal government purchases $87 billion in services a year. In order to ensure the government is maximizing efficiency for service contracting, the Subcommittee intends to review workforce training, contract management, and the utilization of performance-based contracting and share in savings contracting. The hearing will highlight the challenges agencies have faced in implementing acquisition reform initiatives and what additional steps are necessary to ensure government is moving to market-based solutions.

Witnesses will be asked to address the following questions: (1) In your view, has the federal government adequately identified acquisition workforce challenges and undertaken strategic human capital management planning for its workforce? (2) Although the benefits of performance-based contracting are widely recognized for service contracting, this type of contracting is still not sufficiently utilized. To what extent does the government use performance-based contracting for services? In your view, what government-wide mechanisms can be implemented to address these challenges? Is further legislation necessary to promote performance based contracting? (3) In your view, what steps need to be taken to identify acquisitions that are suited for cross-agency purchasing? Do you believe there are significant regulatory barriers to horizontal acquisitions? (4) To the best of your knowledge, has the federal government developed best business practices for contracting? If so, are these effectively utilized in training? If not, do you believe that an effort in this area would benefit federal agencies and assist in better workforce training? (5) Share-in-savings contracting is an innovative tool that would allow agencies to better leverage limited resources for a greater return on investment. This contracting tool is not widely utilized today. What barriers do you believe are hindering greater utilization of share-in-savings contracting?

Witnesses expected to testify at the hearing include:

Mr. David Cooper, Director, Contracting Issues, United States General Accounting Office

Mr. David Oliver, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logisitics, United States Department of Defense

Mr. David Drabkin, Deputy Associate Administrator for Acquisition Policy, Office of Governmentwide Policy, United States General Services Administration

Dr. Steven Kelman, Albert J. Weatherhead III and Richard W. Weatherhead Professor of Public Management, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Mr. Michael Mutek, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Raytheon Technical Information Services testifying on behalf of Professional Services Council

Mr. Mark Wagner, Manager, Federal Government Affairs, Johnson Controls testifying on behalf of Contract Services Association

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