The rumors this morning are about the next head of OFPP. As I posted some time ago, the current rumor surrounds GAO's current Acting General Counsel. Much of his career was in GAO's bid protest unit.

How would a former GAO bid protest attorney affect federal contracting?

From yesterdays Federal Computer Week article:

"Some of Gordon's philosophy and likely approach to procurement issues can be found in his public record. For example, in a presentation to the Acquisition Advisory Panel in 2005, Gordon said he believes that bid protests are helpful to agencies. According to the minutes of that meeting, Gordon said that, "bid protests provide a self-policing mechanism that may be more efficient than an audit because they allow the aggrieved party to raise concerns."

Gordon has also taken on the Small Business Administration. In July of this year, he denied SBA's request to review bid protest decisions. He wrote that GAO denied the request because SBA's "newly raised information fails to show that our prior decision contains any errors of fact or law." OMB Director Peter Orszag sided with SBA in that dispute."

For anyone who hasn't seen the Office of Legal Counsel's (OLC) opinion stating:

The Small Business Act does not compel the prioritization of awards under the Historically Underutilized Business Zone Program over those under the 8(a) Business Development Program and the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concern Program. The Small Business Administration's regulations permissibly authorize contracting officers to exercise their discretion to choose among these three programs in setting aside contracts to be awarded to qualified small business concerns.

It is now published at OLC's site.

Thanks Bob.

Dan Gordon also has written and spoken extensively on conflicts of interest in government contracting. If you've been following GAO rulings the last few years, this is an area where the government has gotten in trouble. See https://acc.dau.mil/CommunityBrowser.aspx?id=216076 (I hope this link works--if it doesn't, just Google dan gordon and conflict of interest.)

As I said in another post, I have found Mr. Gordon to be smart, articulate, straightforward and reasonable, and I think he would bring useful experience and perspective to the job.

Two of Dan Gordon's articles were posted to this site's Analysis page during 2006 and 2005.

The articles on COI are excellent. That's one of the most confusing and least understood issues we face. It's also an example of areas where effective OFPP leadership can make a positive impact by informing and educating the workforce, and establishing government-wide policy.

As I said in another post, I have found Mr. Gordon to be smart, articulate, straightforward and reasonable... ."

I expect presidential nominees, especially Obama nominees, to be smart, articulate, straightforward and reasonable. Those qualities are good, but they're not enough. Smart, articulate, straightforward, and reasonable people are a dime a dozen in Washington. Are you happy with the state of things? For the record, I'm not. The late, great David Halberstam wrote a book about just such people called The Best and the Brightest. Unfortunately, most readers don't seem to realize that the title was meant to be ironical.

Mr. Gordon is certainly well-educated, and, I'm told, a really nice guy. Also a dime a dozen in Washington. I won't hold it against him that the GAO has published some really dumb decisions during the past two years over his signature. He deserves his chance. What I'm going to do is wait to see what he does. I don't care what he thinks or what he says. I care only about what he does. We should know something in about two years.