WASHINGTON, DC—Federal procurement and contracting is huge, and this spending drives the 10 jurisdictions of the Greater Washington, DC office market. Indeed, this market is the largest recipient of contract dollars in the nation at $83.4 billion, followed by California at $57.9 billion. And, the national contract spending total was $470.8 billion in 2017.

In this exclusive, Robert Hartley, director of research for the Greater Washington, DC metro area of Colliers International, shared insights into how this federal spending tips the scales for a positive or negative outcome of economic growth.

“When we look at the revenue/R&D spending last year, the federal government procured $116 billion in R&D, more than Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, GlaxoSmithKline and Monsanto combined,” Hartley tells GlobeSt.com. “It’s an absolutely massive amount of spending and where these dollars flow really drives the regional economy. When you think of what Amazon has done for Seattle and what Apple has done for Cupertino, the impact to those areas is great. The DC region is the largest recipient of federal dollars of any area in the United States, and it is an enormous driver of our economy.”

Hartley points out that Northern Virginia is the largest beneficiary of federal dollars in this region. It received $41.8 billion — half the region’s obligated contract dollars — while 54.7% or $22.9 billion was received from the Department of Defense.

“When we start looking at nodes of government contractors and their impact on commercial real estate in our region, most of their business is done in Northern Virginia,” Hartley tells GlobeSt.com. “A lot of it is Defense, which involves high end, advanced types of work: cybersecurity, command and control, aerospace, weapons systems, national security, intelligence, aerospace and medical research. This work is tied to some of most sophisticated research in the US.”  Read Full Article

Scott AFB, Illinois, Feb. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

The United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) currently seeks a contractor to complete transportation and storage services for privately-owned vehicles. This lengthy procurement began back in January of 2017 and is soon coming to a close.

This contract will have a two-year base period with the option to continue on with the contract until 2024. The current provider of services for this requirement is International Auto Logistics LLC (DUNS 078597284). They are a transportation company who has been awarded over $687 million in government contracts since 2014.

The provider on the new contract will be responsible for shipping multiple vehicles worldwide and storing vehicles for an average of 2-3 years. All requirements and modifications that have been posted in regards to this solicitation (Solicitation ID: HTC711-17-Z-R003) can be found on third-party, US Federal Contractor Registration’s Advanced Procurement Portal.  Reference Article

Peanut butter. Bottled water. Hygiene kits. Diesel fuel. Surgical supplies.

These are just some of the supplies and services the U.S. government has purchased through the nearly $614.3 million in contracts it has awarded since hurricanes Harvey and Irma pummeled Texas and Florida, according to the Federal Procurement Data System, which compiles government-wide contracts as of Thursday.

And that pot of money is expected to grow exponentially.

Among the recipients of these contracts are big players, including medical device maker Medtronic, aerospace and defense company General Dynamics, as well as smaller outfits, like family-owned Foster Fuels, a provider of emergency fuel.

As the government continues to assess damages, more companies can expect to get awarded contracts for office supplies, dumpsters, portable toilets and other essentials needed to help clean up and rebuild homes and infrastructure. Read Full Article.

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Small Business Administration announced today that the federal government reached its small business federal contracting goal for the fourth consecutive year, awarding 24.34 percent in federal contract dollars to small businesses totaling $99.96 billion, an increase of over $9 billion from the previous year. 

"I am pleased to report that for the fourth year in a row, the federal government has exceeded its small business contracting goal," Administrator Linda McMahon said.  "It is a win-win for federal agencies to get small business contracts into the hands of the innovative small business owners that create jobs in their communities and help to fuel the nation's economy." Read Full Article.

Dive Brief:

• President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order on "Buy American and Hire American" policies in an effort to increase the domestic share of labor and products used in federal projects.
• The new order calls upon Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to investigate current government procurement policies at federal agencies, with an eye toward disabling poor monitoring, weak enforcement and ineffective compliance efforts, Politico reported.
• In addition, the administration will assess guest worker programs and the cost-benefits of free trade provisions, allowing for national treatment of foreign contracts compared to the reciprocal access.  Read Full Article Here.

MICHIGAN -- U.S. Senator Gary Peters today visited MessageMakers in Lansing to announce that he will be introducing bipartisan legislation with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to help protect small businesses from falling victim to fraud when they register to procure federal contracts.

The Procurement Fraud Prevention Act would require small businesses to be notified that free assistance is available for help in procuring government contracts through federal programs, including Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs), the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). Many business owners are unaware these resources exist and fall victim to scams that mislead them into paying high sums of money for contract procurement assistance. Read Full Reference Article

The Senate has passed a Congressional Review Act resolution disapproving the Aug. 25, 2016, “Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces” federal acquisition regulation.

Approving the CRA on March 7, the Senate now sends it for President Trump’s signature in order to officially roll back the final rule, which has not yet gone into effect because of a Texas federal court’s preliminary injunction. In addition, the CRA prevents future administrations from promulgating a similar rule.

“The Statement of Administration Policy on the resolution stated the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces regulation would ‘bog down federal procurement with unnecessary and burdensome processes,’ ” said David Berteau, president and CEO of the Professional Services Council. “PSC agrees and urges President Trump to sign the resolution expeditiously to remove this significant overhang from the acquisition process.” Full Article

In December 2016, Jones Day issued " Government Contracts Ramifications of the Trump Election," a Commentary in which we discussed several likely impacts of the Trump Administration in the government contracts arena. Specifically, we discussed that the new Administration would:

• Seek repeal of numerous Executive Orders affecting government contractors.
• Reject some Obama Administration procurement policies, such as: the preference for fixed-price type contracts; the preference for lowest-price technically acceptable ("LPTA") evaluation schemes; and the preference against outsourcing government jobs to private companies.
• Embrace Commercial Item contracting.
• Increase government spending for defense, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and immigration-related activities.
• Decrease spending by many agencies, including the Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, and Internal Revenue Service.
• Focus on compliance issues such as rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse, and ensuring compliance with the Buy American Act and Trade Agreements Act.
• Withdraw from, or renegotiate America's participation in, certain trade relationships, which could affect companies' supply chains.
• Decrease the federal workforce, which could result in understaffing and undertraining within the acquisition workforce.
• Appoint the members of the FAR Council, including the Office of Federal Procurement Policy ("OFPP") Administrator, Secretary of Defense, Administrator of National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Administrator of General Services Administration. Read Full Article.

A growing number of agencies no longer believe prices under the General Services Administration schedules program are "fair and reasonable."

Along with the Defense Department, NASA quietly issued a memo in March that requires its contracting officers to do additional research to ensure GSA schedule prices are the best value for the government. Industry sources say other agency memos could follow from the likes of the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Energy.

If there was ever any question about the course correction the federal contracting market has been going through over the past three years, a new survey from Grant Thornton puts it all to rest.

Not only is revenue down, but profits are down too. Grant Thornton found the percentage of vendors making less than 5 percent profit or no profit grew in 2012 by 31 percent over 2011.

Federal procurement spending down $20 billion. Read Full Article.

Companies must make a realistic assessment of your chances to WIN a contract. It is important to make the bid/no bid decision early so time is not wasted. The decision should be made before or immediately following the release of the RFP.

When analyzing the probabilities, ask yourself...how well do you know the customer? Does the customer know you? Chances are, if you don't know the customer and vice a versa, you should not bid. Agencies must KNOW you in order to TRUST you are going to deliver. Their reputation is also at stake.

BID YES if:
• You know and have pre-sold the customer.
• You know the contract history and have information on your chances of successfully competing for the contract (competitive pricing, requirements and/or FOIA information)
• The incumbent has a marginal or poor past performance record.
• You have conducted a site survey and understand the requirements
• Your capabilities meet or exceed the requirements outlined in the RFP. (Teaming relationships help with providing a full service solution)

NO BID if:
• You have NO prior knowledge of the RFP prior to its' release on fbo.gov
• The only information you have is contained in the RFP with no market intelligence or research of the agency needs..
• The requirements are beyond your scope of capabilities and you have no identified teaming partners to include with your technical response.
• There is an incumbent contractor who has continued to provide good or exceptional services. Most (not all) incumbents re-win their contracts if they have maintained a good performance record and relationship with the customer. You shouldn't bid unless you know the customer is unhappy or you have special knowledge of the procurement.
• If you don't KNOW then NO

GovTip: Spend time, resources and money doing your homework in order to make the right decision. No one likes to lose...time, money or business!  Need help?