My commentary and reposting of the article, "Institutional Amnesia And The Neglect Of The Federal Acquisition Workforce", from Jessica Tillipman and Steven Schooner at the GWU Law School.
- Dean Brabant
- Aug 15, 2025
- 2 min read
The authors assert early in the article that procurement reform in the United States has historically emphasized procedural modifications over investments in the federal workforce. Prioritizing investment in personnel and enhancing the professionalism of the acquisition workforce should be the administration’s primary focus. Instead, it fostered a vitriolic and disrespectful environment towards government service personnel.
We currently find ourselves in a comparable reform context, where rewriting and eliminating policies will contribute to addressing issues within the acquisition ecosystem. Certainly, streamlining and clarifying the language of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) can be advantageous; however, it is unlikely to produce the level of impact that most anticipate. As the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and the FAR Council remove non-statutory rules, executive agencies will develop non-statutory practitioner buying guides. As Tillipman and Schooner observe, disaggregating rules and processes for acquisition professionals adds complexity to the core acquisition process in a highly dynamic environment. A rapid, enterprise-wide improvement in procurement lead times should not be expected soon simply on the basis of the FAR rewrite.
The exodus of talent within the system, concomitant with regulatory reform, significantly contributes to increased complexity, particularly in the current year. Studies and workforce analyses conducted over various periods and dispersed across multiple decades consistently emphasize an under-resourced acquisition workforce. Many experienced and capable acquisition professionals left the government in recent months. I am one of them. The increased toxicity, chronic public demonization, coupled with stifling internal disarray due to turbulent, rapid changes, indicated that it was time to depart.
Under-resourcing, loss of talent, and increased complexity contravene the national imperative to reform our acquisition ecosystem. The system requires investment in people and organizational re-engineering. Some reform and incremental improvement can and may happen by the system inhabitants; however, the article poignantly states, “Career staff cannot solve a politically driven capacity problem alone.” Political appointees, especially at the under-secretary and assistant secretary level, can have a significant impact on long-term reform and restructuring. And, Congress must be a part of the solution.
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