President Trump Continues Modernising Federal Procurement
US President Donald Trump is continuing efforts to transform federal procurement in the US, singing an executive order set to "restore common sense by dramatically simplifying the process," according to the White House.
The order, which follows a directive to eliminate paper straws, directs his administration to simplify and streamline the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that governs federal procurement, ensuring it contains only provisions required by statute or essential to efficient, secure and cost-effective procurement.
It also states that agencies exercising procurement authority must ensure agency-specific regulations align with the streamlined FAR.
The order mandates the issuance of interim guidance, as needed, to support reform until the final rules reforming the FAR are published, while a regulatory sunset provision will be considered that would result in non-statutory FAR provisions expiring after four years unless renewed.
Trillion-dollar overhaul targets bureaucratic hurdles
The latest order stems from President Trump wanting to create the most agile, effective and efficient procurement system possible.
The Federal Government is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world, spending nearly US$1tn annually, yet the announcement states that "conducting business with the Federal Government is often prohibitively inefficient and costly given the regulatory complexity".
It also criticised the evolution of the FAR over the last four decades, stating it has "ballooned" to more than 2,000 pages of regulations, "creating an onerous bureaucracy that undermines timely delivery of high-value products and services."
The order goes on to state that studies have consistently found FAR "is a barrier to, rather than a prudent vehicle for, doing business with the Federal Government." Trump's bid to reform FAR represents an effort to reduce "bureaucratic hurdles, empowering all businesses to compete for government contracts and ensuring taxpayer dollars deliver maximum value".
This is all built on the mantra of reclaiming efficiency for the taxpayers across the US. Trump's thinking is that simplifying the Federal Government will free the American people from excessive regulations and bureaucracy.
DOGE's savings claims under scrutiny
President Trump has also launched a 10-to-1 deregulation initiative, ensuring every new Federal rule is justified by clear benefits and accompanied by much larger deregulatory measures.
The White House website states that "at every step, President Trump is promoting the use of commercial options, letting the market drive innovation and deliver high-quality, cost-effective solutions to meet government needs".
It also outlines the creation of "Department of Government Efficiency", or DOGE, headed up by Elon Musk, to examine how to streamline the operations of the Federal Government, eliminate unnecessary programmes and wasteful spending and reduce bureaucratic inefficiency.
Musk has previously said he will save billions of dollars for the Federal Government. DOGE's site claims to have already achieved US$155bn in estimated savings, equating to US$962 per taxpayer.
However, Harry Kraemer, a clinical professor of Leadership at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, is among those to have questioned the figures, telling Fortune the savings were "overstated by up to 80%".
The White House insists Trump has "already reduced unnecessarily large governmental entities and terminated numerous harmful Biden expansions of governmental authority".
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