“What the blankety-blank are we doing?” That’s a typical (and real) reaction of contractors and federal procurement camp followers when it comes to the April 30 executive order about contracting. The move takes the longstanding preference for fixed price contracts into new territory.
The federal budget process, in theory anyway, runs roughly in parallel with the major league baseball season. Right around Opening Day, some sort of proposal issues from the Administration. Now, a month or so in, Congress, such as it is, hasn’t spent much time thinking about its primary responsibility: passing a budget for fiscal 2027 by September 30, the day after the MLB post season starts.
When the Trump administration released its national cybersecurity strategy last month, regular consumers of detailed federal policy might have had a “where’s the beef?” moment. Shortly after the strategy came out, a cataclysmic event – the war against Iran and its proxy terror groups – showed vividly why cybersecurity is not merely academic. The war has let loose a torrent of malicious activity in cyberspace. If ever it was critical to keep cyber defenses such as patches and deterrent measures up to date, it’s now.
Acquisition remains tied to advancement by the government. Regardless of the era, mainframe COBOL to artificial intelligence, the government works hard to keep up. Now a heavily engaged Defense Department has developed a love-hate relationship with the artificial intelligence industry. That has led to dire consequences for one big player and a distortion of law and regulation for everyone.
Although delayed at the last minute by immigration politics, it seems like Congress will end up funding the government for 2026. The fiscal year will only run eight months, but at least agencies will be able to proceed with new initiatives on the technology and customer experience fronts. And the government certainly has a long list of items to deal with, much of it having to do with contractors. Relations between the federal government and its suppliers often get tense. They are hitting a bit of a rough patch now. As outlined in the story below, the Trump administration likes to throw out the baby with the bathwater when it does not like a contractor.
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2026 shows at least one thing: If you live long enough, you might see significant reform in the Defense Department.
Frankly, with all of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s activities since his confirmation, I wondered whether he knew that millions of words of recommendations – and sound ones at that – already existed on how acquisition might improve. He may, but those who have spent years on these matters believe it will be Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg who will push the reforms through.
The latest talk-of-the-town stems from the 40+ page November 7 memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The memo follows up the Trump White House Executive Order 14625 from last April, so the industry has been on notice. Many in the defense business wondered what would happen to the many reform commissions and committees that have been looking at Defense procurement reform. The community has been looking to see how or whether the scattered efforts at speeding technology adoption would coalesce into comprehensive policy. Now we have it.
Walmart: The next model for digital government? Presuming they will return to some semblance of normal operations, federal agency programs and IT staff will once again think earnestly about modernization. When they do, I wonder if the topic of user experience or service to the citizen will once again rank top-of-mind. If it does, managers might look at Walmart. The giant retailer is among the first companies to try and apply the most recent revolutionary computing force, namely generative artificial intelligence.
To paraphrase a line from President Lincoln’s second inaugural address, all dreaded it, all sought to avert it … And the shutdown came. The manifest cause of the shutdown might well be one’s interest in extending health care subsidies. But the fundamental cause is a generalized failure of Congress to do the work of agency-by-agency appropriations on any kind of meaningful schedule and on any reasonable philosophic basis. I have lived professionally through shutdowns since the first 1995 one during the Bill Clinton administration. They all entail bitterness, this one more than most.
The next debate in artificial intelligence center is on whether so called artificial general intelligence has arrived or will arrive. Some of the mega AI companies are already claiming they have it. In the more practical domains, AI has already caused change. No longer do organizations dutifully promise, while already knowing better, that AI will not replace people, only enhance what they do. That fig leaf has fallen away to reveal the fact that AI is, in fact, replacing people.