Off the Shelf

Kraig Conrad, CEO of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) and chair of the Commerce & Contract Management Institute is this week’s guest on Off the Shelf .  Conrad shares his vision for the NCMA and how it is responding to the sweeping changes in federal procurement.  He highlights NCMA’s role in the continuous professional development of the acquisition workforce, and...

This week on Off the Shelf , Rob Burton, partner at Crowell & Moring LLP , shares his insights and analysis on how the Trump Administration’s first 100 days is restructuring the federal procurement market.  Burton discusses the Department of Government Efficiency structure and role in the resetting procurement operations, and highlights the key executive orders reshaping the procurement system...

This week on Off the Shelf , Tina Murphy, president & CEO of GHX , discusses commercial best practices in healthcare supply chain management.  Murphy addresses the imperative of simplifying federal healthcare operations through automation technology for order and data management to improve patient care, and explains how digital transformation supports supply chain resilience addressing vulnera...

Brian Friel, founder of BD Squared , joins host Roger Waldron on Off the Shelf for a discussion focusing on the consolidation of procurement functions at GSA and the future of interagency contracting.  Friel provides his insights and analysis of the leading IT GWAC and governmentwide contracts, including NASA SEWP, CIO-SP4, OASIS+, and the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program. He also outlines th...

Bill Greenwalt, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Moshe Schwartz, president of Etherton and Associates , join host Roger Waldron on Off the Shelf for a wide ranging, thought-provoking discussion of the imperative for procurement reform. Now more than ever!  Greenwalk and Schwartz highlight current consensus coalescing around the need for across-the-board reform of procurement...

This week's Off the Shelf focuses on the mission of the Department of Justice’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force (the PCSF) . The PCSF is charged with coordinating the national response to antitrust and related crimes in procurement and grant programs at the federal, state, and local levels. It was created to fight procurement collusion which undermines the integrity of the procurement system, d...

Nelly Wilson, Google’s global head of AI Services for Weather and Climate joins Off the Shelf for a fascinating discussion on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how to implement it.  Wilson discusses the impact of AI as the biggest technology shift since the creation of the internet. She explains how AI will transform business operations and how it can be applied to all aspects of a business, includ...

Alan Thomas, founder of Alpha Tango Strategies, and Bill Gormley, president of the Gormley Group , join host Roger Waldron on this week's Off the Shelf for an engrossing discussion of the evolving federal procurement market.  The discussion highlights the consolidation of procurement functions at the General Services Administration (GSA) pursuant to the president’s executive order.  Thomas and Gor...

Christine Harada, former senior advisor in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy during the Biden administration, joins Aileen Black on this week's Leaders and Legends. Harada is currently the senior advisor of Project Redword at Advanced Energy United and is a dynamic executive leader with over 25 years of experience bridging the public and private sector. That experience coupled with her educ...

This week on Off the Shelf , Ken Dodds, executive vice president, and general counsel for the Coalition for Common Sense in Government Procurement , shares his thoughts on opportunities for acquisition reform. Dodds discusses the opportunities to streamline GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), including potential reform of the underlying statutory authority to focus on best value results for custo...

This week on Off the Shelf ,  Moshe Schwartz, president of Etherton and Associates, provides a briefing on select provisions in the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the broad national security landscape driving defense acquisition policy.  Schwartz outlines the traditional defense challenges, new challenges, and the budget constraints shaping overall defense policy.  Additiona...

This week on Off the Shelf , Jason Workmaster, member and Government Contracts Practice lead at Miller & Chevalier , provides a wide-ranging update on key policy developments and legal trends in government contracts.  Workmaster discusses the impact of the administration’s EEO/DEI Executive Order (EO) and what government contractors need to know, including how compliance programs will need to...

Eric Crusius, partner at Holland & Knight , joins Off the Shelf for a cybersecurity update as well as providing his procurement expectations for the Trump Administration.  Crusius discusses the likelihood of CMMC remaining intact and moving forward with implementation across DoD.  He also provides his initial comments/analysis on the recently proposed Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)...

This week on Off the Shelf  Alex Canizares, partner at Perkins Coie , shares his thoughts regarding False Claims Act landscape for 2025, including the anticipated priorities of the Department of Justice in 2025.  Canizares also discusses the recent status of the legal challenge to the constitutionality of the FCA’s qui tam provisions.  He also addresses recent cybersecurity policy developments, in...

Bill Gormley, president of the Gormley Group , joins Off the Shelf for a discussion of some the key procurement trends of 2024 and what to expect in 2025.  Gormley gives his thoughts on the key trends shaping interagency contracting with a focus on GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). Among other topics, Gormley assesses the performance of the Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) in 2024 and the pro...

This week Dr. Evan Loh, Paratek CEO, returns to Off the Shelf to share the latest in the biopharmaceutical company’s partnership with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority’s (BARDA’s)  Project BioShield.  Paratek’s antibiotic, NUZYRA (omadacycline) has been designated “an essential” medicine by the FDA, and Loh provides an update on the progress made in onshoring of manufactur...

This week Alan Thomas, founder of Alpha Tango Strategies, joins Off the Shelf for a look back at 2024 and a look forward at what’s next for 2025.  Thomas provides his thoughts on some of the key trends from 2024 and what to look for in 2025.  Among the trends he identifies for 2025 are the return of shared services, the continuous yet cautious growth in AI across government, the challenging IT GWA...

Karla Smith Jackson, senior procurement executive, deputy chief acquisition officer, and assistant administrator for the Office of Procurement at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) , joins  Off the Shelf for an engaging discussion focusing on federal procurement policy and operations. Jackson outlines her management priorities for NASA procurement while also sharing how her e...

This week Michael Gruden, counsel at Crowell & Moring, joins Off the Shelf , for a wide-ranging discussion focusing on cybersecurity and the CMMC journey.  Gruden provides a cyber retrospective, outlining the evolution of government cybersecurity requirements to the present-day implementation of CMMC. A former contracting officer and Pentagon Branch Chief, Gruden shares his perspectives and in...

Luke Levasseur and Evan Williams, counsel at Mayer Brown , join Off the Shelf for an in depth discussion of the bid protest process.  Levasseur and Williams outline the underlying authority and rationale for bid process and the role the process plays in the procurement process. They walk through the procedural steps of a GAO bid protest, sharing the key litigation timelines, standards of review, d...

This week on Off the Shelf , Alan Thomas, founder of Alpha Tango Strategies, examines the state of interagency contracting and the role of Multiple Award Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (MAIDIQ) contracts.   Thomas shares his thoughts and observations on the increasingly duplicative structure of the IT GWACs and OASIS+. With potentially hundreds, if not thousands of contractors, all compet...

This week on Off the Shelf,  Ken Dodds, executive vice president and general counsel at the Coalition for Government Procurement provides a small business policy and regulatory update. Dodds tackles the SBA’s August 2024 proposed rule, which addresses multiple small business contracting programs, including mentor protégé joint ventures, the HUBZone program, and the 8(a) program. He also provides a...

Jeff Koses, senior procurement executive at the General Services Administration (GSA) joins Off the Shelf for a focused discussion on GSA’s current procurement policy priorities. Koses talks about the implementation and expansion of Transactional Data Reporting (TDR) across the Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) program. He highlights the positive impact on small businesses, customer agencies, and GSA...

Federal News Network Executive Editor Jason Miller joins host Roger Waldron on this week's Off the Shelf for “Procurement Potpourri,” a wide-ranging discussion of key procurement policy and program developments across the federal market. They tackle the state of interagency contracting focusing on the status of the four major interagency procurements: OASIS+, CIO-SP4, NASA SEWP, and Alliant 3.  Th...

Tony Celeste, Head of Ingram Micro Public Sector LLC and Promark Technology Inc. , joins Off the Shelf for a wide-ranging discussion of significant trends shaping the federal IT market.  Celeste offers his thoughts on digital transformation and best practices agencies and contractors can leverage towards IT modernization.  He also addresses the role of AI and virtual reality in supporting federal...