oversight and government reform committee exists to secure two fundamental principles first americans have the right to know the money washington takes from them is well spent and second americans deserve an efficient effective government that works for them our duty in the oversight and government committee is to protect these rights our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to taxpayers because taxpayers have a right to know what they get from their government we will work tirelessly and in partnership with citizen watchdogs to deliver the facts to the american people and secure genuine reform to the federal bureaucracy this is the mission of the oversight and government reform committee make a brief opening statement in addition to the nature of the workload let me back up the people who plan and prepare and issue government contracts play a vital role in protecting the interests of the american taxpayer we are all familiar with stories about sixteen dollars muffins and six hundred dollars hammers being bought by the government but these stories often turn out to be more complicated than the sound bite would suggest but they do reflect an underlying reality the government must have capable people overseeing these complex acquisitions in order to properly steward the taxpayers money it is essential to have skilled capable people acquiring the goods and services necessary to run the government and to serve the american people our federal government is the single largest customer in the world and its acquisition workforce is grappling with a huge increase in volume between  two thousand and two thousand and eight acquisition spending by the federal government expanded by one hundred and sixty three percent from two hundred and five dollars billion to five hundred and thirty nine dollars billion today procurement spending is approaching seven hundred dollars billion in addition to that the nature of that workload has become complex government procurement increasingly reflects complex services rather than just simple goods it is a lot harder to acquire a complex engineering and technical expertise than to buy offices supplies services not supplies now account for seventy percent of the federal governments spending many experts note the need for proper training of acquisition officers concerning the complex and frequently changing federal contracting environment while seismic shifts are occurring in the landscape of federal acquisitions the skills and tools of the federal acquisitions workforce has remain largely stagnant this further places agency missions and taxpayer funds at risk improving the skills of the federal acquisition workforce is in the best interest of everyone involved the federal acquisition workforce the contractors the government and all taxpayers two broad reforms are being required first how do we improve government wide leadership in the coordination and development of the federal acquisition professionals defense acquisition university and the federal acquisition institute play central roles in the training and shaping of the acquisition workforce does the government has so many training centers who is coordinating the curriculum between the civilian and military acquisition workforce to allow for workforce mobility and advancement should the government break training centers into centers of excellence each focusing upon a specific special ask the question and lets find out second beyond leadership and coordination we must focus on the governments use of tools and advanced capabilities to equip qualified acquisition workforce professionals why isnt there a standardized contract writing tool across the whole government w the tracking and reporting data on the federal procurement data base unreliable at times and sometime deficient we know there are several new initiatives underway to improve the acquisition workforce some of these initiatives include such programs as mentoring and intern programs the use of flexible hiring authority increase college recruitment efforts and improvements within the acquisition workforce career track we are going to ask what else and is it enough and how is it going i look forward to hearing more about these efforts today and working with the ranking member on the common ground that we do have on this very important issue we spent a significant amount of time talking to people that have government contractors and trying to chat on what are the solutions that they see what are the things that they identify and a lot of this conversation today will focus on the low hanging fruit what can we get accomplished where should we be going to review the federal acquisition institute improvement act and other acquisition personnel issues i appreciate your attention to the issue which is of critical importance to federal employees contractors and taxpayers as you know senator collins and i introduced companion bills to strengthen the federal in addition to strengthening the fai it is appropriate that we would consider other acquisition workforce policies that can improve federal efficiency and the delivery of services chief among these are personnel policies with respect to recruitment retention and compensation which are all related obviously as the thoughtful staff memorandum for this hearing noted the acquisition workforce is experiencing a silver tsunami in which twenty five percent of employees could retire within the next several years the shortage would while training existing personnel to adapt to a changing procurement environment which is more focused on services and technology in order to recruit new staff and retain existing staff it is imperative that we maintain competitive compensation packages in the federal workforce w federal employees may never be paid as much as their private sector counterparts and indeed we recently had a study that shows we have actually had deterioration in that ratio we cannot allow that gap to widen so much that we lose our best acquisition personnel to the private sector fortunately many individuals and agencies are leading the way to improve the acquisition workforce the administrations twenty five point plan for it reform for example calls for the example of acquisition career paths focused on technology in which  fai are in fact collaborating dod is hiring ten thousand new acquisition personnel over the next four years donna jenkins has expanded the fai staff from six to nine a fifty percent increase to meet the growing agency demands but i hardly think that is adequate and it is partnering with a diverse set of agencies to maximize the impact of a very small team of experts the veterans affairs administration ha opened an outstanding  academy in the national capital region these are all laudable efforts and i hope we will learn today how best we can support them including but not limited to passing the federal acquisition improvement act in a recent hearing we learned about one appalling consequence of a lack of contracting oversight widespread human trafficking among overseas contractors and again i congratulate you mister chairman for holding those delicate but very important hearings we must maintain a focus on this issue because whether it is human trafficking  seven days to submit opening statements or extraneous materials for the record we will now welcome our first panel the honorable dan gordon he is the administrator of the office of federal procurement policy for a little while longer dan has been a forceful advocate on behalf of the acquisition workforce for many years his role as ofpp administrator he has been a tireless proponent for the men and women who steward our taxpayer dollars and we appreciate that recently dan announced his intent to leave federal service to join the distinguished faculty at george washington university law school as an associate dean it seems fitting to have dan here today discuss one of his passions the acquisition workforce which was the centerpiece for his senate confirmation hearing two years ago i do thank you for your distinguished service congratulate you on your new position and look forward to continuing to pick your brain in the days to come on the things  about more in the acquisition system than strengthening our acquisition workforce it is my top priority it is our top priority and id like to talk about a number of points in this brief opening statement i do want to broaden the scope a bit wider and you will see what i mean in a moment because i think it is helpful to have somewhat more context as you said mister chairman the federal acquisition system spends in buying goods and services more than half a trillion dollars a year that number was going up very fast between two thousand and two thousand and nine i am happy to report that in fact we have slowed that down so that in two thousand and ten the number actually went down and while we dont have final numbers for two thousand and eleven it appears that they will be roughly at that lower level of two thousand and ten the federal acquisition workforce as you said mister chairman handles that half a trillion dollars a year and it is very important that they be in a position to protect the integrity of the federal procurement process that is why congressman connollys comments resonate so much with us in terms of protecting and strengthening the federal acquisition workforce when i talked about broadening the scope i want to make clear that when we say the acquisition workforce we mean more than our contracting officers and contract specialists what we in the personnel system call our s it also includes our contracting officers representatives or cors in some agencies they are called cotars contracting officers technical reps they play a key role in contract management contract oversight and that is a role that has been much neglected frankly over the last quarter of a century i want to talk a little bit about strengthening that cor role in addition we have project and program managers who are part of the acquisition workforce but are often disconnected from the actual contracting  shops one of the things that we have tried to do in this administration is look at that entire acquisition workforce and be sure that we are strengthening that entire workforce we in omb have been at the forefront of efforts to strengthen the workforce  as i am sure you know the presidents budget for two thousand and eleven and two thousand and twelve requested significant dollar investments in the federal acquisition workforce and while congress did not appropriate all the money that we requested we did have some success in strengthening the acquisition workforce at a good number of agencies but when i talk about broadening the scope i want to talk about it in a different dimension as well because for much of the last quarter of a century when we talked about acquisition we really talked about who got the contract the award of the contract was usually our focus and in this administration we have tried to broaden that scope as well so that we spend much more time and energy focused on acquisition planning because frankly whether it is a large it project or any other project when we screw up often it is because we didnt do good acquisition planning and then after the award of the contract we need to do a much better job of contract management to be sure that we hold contractors to the promises they made they did after all sign a contract and we need to be sure that they deliver on schedule on cost and with the performance level that they promised us let me in the brief time that i have highlight a couple of the ways in which we have tried to improve acquisition planning in the workforce number one our mythbusters memo that we put out in february of this year talks about the need for our acquisition workforce to listen to industry to talk to industry to have better communication with industry we cant do our job properly if we are not talking to and listening to industry second as congressman connolly pointed out we are focused on strengthening specialized acquisition cadres for it for services and for others so that the acquisition can do a better job of planning our acquisitions and carrying them out in terms of contract management because of shortage of time let me just mention that we have raised the bar for the standards to be a contracting officers representative we now have a three tier certification process so that the cor or the contracting officers representative overseeing a very large contract is someone that has the experience that has the training to oversee that very large both and done our best to strengthen their efforts and to see to it that they are working together as they are so that our taxpayer funds are being well spent the fact is as the stewards of the taxpayer dollars we need to be sure that we doing everything that we can to avoid fraud waste and abuse and also to spend the money in an intelligent way our acquisition workforce if treated properly if trained properly if compensated properly can be the best protection for the acquisition process and we appreciate this committees commitment to improving the acquisition workforce i am happy to answer any questions that committee members have recognize myself initially for a first round of questions you obviously walked into this whole thing in motion you inherited issues you worked at it significantly for a couple of years and now you are leaving for other things what is the next person connolly made i am very concerned very concerned that the progress we have made over the past two years is at risk budgetary pressures risks slashing the federal acquisition workforce whether it is a matter of cutting salaries cutting benefits showing disrespect for our federal workforce cutting the numbers of our people cutting the training that they are getting we cannot protect the federal acquisition process without a good federal acquisition workforce and i am very concerned that budgetary pressures are going to unroll much of the progress that we have had mister lankford and the task that the next person has coming in as far as midstream to the projects that you have i understand that because that is true of every agency everything that we do in every part of america and every company currently not every but many companies in america are dealing with that same issue the next director that walks in what is the project that needs to be first on their desk mister gordon i think the priorities are going to remain the same priorities my priority number one has been strengthen the federal acquisition workforce that means look for opportunities for training it means do outreach the second priority is fiscal responsibility we need to buy less we need to buy smarter one of the benefits of buying smarter is that it reduces the burden on the federal acquisition workforce strategic sourcing by having vehicles in place government wide means that individual contracting officers dont need to run competitions for contracts that reduces their workload and is helpful rebalancing our relationship with contractors whether it is improving  the communication part of mythbusters or seeing to it that we are doing better contract oversight we need to be sure that we have a good balance in our relationship with contractors i dont think that can change  quick question as you are listening to contractors what is the primary thing that is rising to the top what are they saying the most you say it is a major priority mister gordon several things and i do spend a lot of my time on the road listening is something that i learned from my mother as a very important skill i try to listen a lot whether it is to contractors or federal officials or others companies are very worried about the uncertainty of what is about to happen they are very worried about the budget and how it is going to impact  their own companies and their own companys work they are very worried about unjustified regulation which is why i and my colleagues have been so committed to being sure that we do a sensible cost benefit analysis before we  impose new requirements they are concerned about excessive reporting requirements both coming from the congress and coming from us in the executive branch i think those may be the three but i should mention in connection with mythbusters because i hear this from vendors all the time they are worried about communication being shut down we need more communication and the companies tell me they are worried that in fact too often they dont have enough communication mister lankford do you feel like more contractors are trying to get involved in the process now or in the pipeline that are bidding mister gordon when i look at the data it looks like we do have an increase in competition and a decrease in sole source contracts when i look at the number of dollars going to small businesses i see increases but boy we have a lot more lankford that is a common theme that i hear with a lot of the folks that are in my district that are trying to get engaged it is still the hurdles and the paperwork requirements and the processing it seems to be significant for them both trying to discover what is out there or then the rules for acquiring a contract seem to be written specifically for a company and they dont fit that criteria so trying to get involved in that so trying to find ways to allow more people to compete obviously drives the cost down and raises up the next generation of large companies that we are going to need to take on these big issues mister gordon absolutely i will tell you that sba has been working diligently and we have been working with them to try to reduce the barriers to entry it is so tough to get into the federal contracting arena typically for companies the first contract is the toughest one to get once they have gotten one and they get a feel for how the system works they can often compete and get further contracts but breaking down the barriers to entry is to have commitment like you have shown to improving training for our federal acquisition workforce it is extremely important and it is also good to see action up on the hill that is bipartisan it is also a good sign i will tell you that over the years as you know the  federal acquisition is often a bipartisan issue and that is a healthy thing for our workforce there are provisions in the bill that are clearly helpful there has been some nervousness frankly on the part of people in my office that the bills language would appear to make it look like the office of federal procurement policy would actually be running fai i dont think that was the intent and we need to be sure when the bill if the bill is enacted we need to be sure that we are able to keep having g important role that it has shown but with that caveat i do think that the bill sends a very strong signal of improving and strengthening the federal acquisition institute mister connolly yes just on that last point the bill explicitly  delegate management of fai to gsa you would prefer we explicitly just have gsa manage it without the delegation i guess from our point of view in drafting the bill we thought you have overall management  responsibility and therefore we didnt want to in any way denigrate that responsibility we actually thought we were being helpful but we obviously could rewrite it to just put it in gsa mister gordon from our point of view it makes more sense to keep fai within gsa which is the current placement it seems to me that you still can get the benefits of the bill even leaving fai in gsa because the real message of the bill is support for fai and that is very important to us  in terms of resources committed to this mission and training what is your sense about that my understanding is by default as a result a lot of people who are in the civilian workforce who get training end up having to go to the defense acquisition university because we simply dont have the wherewithal on the civilian side under fai to do the training or at least the initial training mister gordon it is a very important issue i should tell you i am not sure you know sir i used to be a high school teacher i care a lot about teaching i care a lot about training we need our training to be useful it doesnt help to give training at a time where it is not going to help or in a way that is not going to help online training is one of the ways to overcome the challenge you are talking about and dau as you will hear from the next panel dau is working with fai and others to share their resources in a very helpful way it is true that when we have civilians go to dau courses they sometimes feel like it not beneficial because it is so oriented towards dod but the more those two institutions talk together and share resources together the further our taxpayer dollars are going to go so i am pretty optimistic about that  good solution for a certain base level of training presumably because a contract is a contract at a certain level but once you get into the specialization of that contract i am dealing with pharmaceutical agents and how to manage a contract on very where is that specialized training where do you think that belongs on the civilian side mister gordon well every agency does some specialized training some of them do quite a bit va mentioned earlier va has a terrific acquisition academy up in frederick some of their training is va specific i have been up there i have listened to the interns that are there i have talked to the faculty they do a very good job other agencies also have agency specific training but just to be sure i dont want anybody to be surprised by the fact much of the training that we get is in fact from contractors and those contractors often teach at all the different agencies training so it is the very same teachers in many of the courses mister connolly would the chairman indulge just one more question government one is level of expertise and not meaning anything disparaging at all but as contracts grow more and more complex technologically and get larger and have all kinds of  feelers associated with them do we have the right people in place who have the training and expertise to keep up with the contractors we have just hired to manage it secondly i am worried about internal personnel policies there is terrible turnover so there is a lack of continuity in the management of the contract you could have many many many contract managers during the life of the contract even a brief life of a contract i am concerned that with the best of intentions that has a degrading effect on the quality of acquisition mister gordon i couldnt agree more that is why in the twenty five point plan that you alluded to earlier to improve it acquisition we committed to having a cross disciplinary team that would be with the acquisition with as little turnover as possible from the beginning of the acquisition planning all the way through contract management so we would be sharing information between contracting people and it people and we would have continuity we cant have situations where we have this imbalance between us and the contractors the contractors know way more about it than us i have to tell you i was at a session with companies a few months ago one of the fellows said to me you know dan i getting so tired of training my contracting officers representative how to do their job we need to strengthen our people to make sure that we have a balanced relationship the contractors are incredibly important but they are supporting us and we service and all you have done your comment there i need to reiterate as well i have multiple contractors that i have spoken to around the central oklahoma area that have said the same thing to me that they are training the person that they are working with that they are very familiar with the processes and procedures and that the contracting officers and individuals they are dealing with seem to be very risk averse they are constantly taking the safest route and they are having to show them no this is how it is done and they go back and run it down and they come back the second issue we deal those are not new ideas to you obviously those are issues that we will have to resolve in the days to come to be able to provide some sort of consistency in the process do you want to make a comment on that mister gordon just one brief comment if i could first of all i want to thank the committee for the hearing it is a very important topic but i also want to say when i meet with the front line acquisition professionals we have a group that we call the front line forum we bring in about three dozen contracting officers and contract specialists from across the government