In keeping with prior Coalition for Government Procurement FAR & Beyond blogs on ways to improve the efficiency of the federal procurement process, this blog will focus on regulatory burdens that impose costs on government contractors and impede entry into the federal market by commercial entities. After all, the current Administration recently issued an executive order calling for the elimination of ten regulations for every new regulation. Regulatory burdens come in varied forms. Overlapping, duplicative rules across the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agency supplemental regulations increase administrative costs for government, industry, and the American people. Some regulations impose compliance or administrative costs/burdens that have no relation to the work to be performed under a government contract. In other cases, contract clauses impose significant requirements that are inconsistent with commercial practice. The Government Procurement Efficiency List (GPEL) provides an opportunity to reduce regulations and administrative burdens for all.
The cybersecurity regulatory framework provides a prime example of overlapping yet differing requirements that will unnecessarily increase administrative and compliance costs for all. The Coalition has recently pointed out that if recent proposed rules are finalized there may be different definitions of cyber incidents and cyber incident reporting timelines, depending on the contracting agency. Differing requirements across the federal enterprise increases compliance complexity, thereby increasing performance risk for contractors and the government customers they serve. It also has the knock-on effect of increasing barriers to entry for commercial firms seeking access to the federal market. Less competition from the commercial market means less access to best value, innovative solutions to meet customer agency mission requirements.