Lee:

The quickest way for you to get information about the various ways in which government procurement is used to promote wider policy objectives in the U.S. is to review FAR Subchapter D, Socioeconomic Programs, which encompasses FAR Parts 19 through 26. Except for a few special programs, these parts describe the socioeconomic policies and procedures associated with Federal contracting. You might also look at FAR Subparts 8.6 and 8.7.

While the on-line version of FAR is useful, a better resource is Commerce Clearing House's print edition, which includes references to the editions of the Federal Register in which policies were promulgated. The Federal Register usually includes information about the origin and underlying rationale of policies.

The political philosophy behind these programs is reasonably straightforward, but if you're looking for scholarly analyses and assessments you're going to have to spend time in a good library looking up articles in scholarly publications. I'd begin with sources like the Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS), the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, the Social Sciences Index, and the Sociological Abstracts.

By Brian Fisher on Saturday, July 8, 2000 - 11:04 am:

Lee,

The answer to your question is the subject of many books, treatises, and theses. In short, the U.S. government seeks to achieve its wide-ranging policy objectives through many approaches. I will attempt in this post to address the major themes. By no means should you consider my post exhaustive of all issues and approaches.

First, the annual budget submitted to Congress by the White House contains "general provisions" that highlight policies that the President hopes to accomplish in the coming year.

Second, Congress incorporates into many laws policies that affect federal procurement. For example, the Davis-Bacon and Service Contracts Acts -- statutes designed initially to promote a certain level of wage parity -- a floor if you will -- for a select group of wage earners. Federal contracts exceeding a specific dollar threshold trigger the requirements imposed by these statutes.

Third, the vast majority of procurement policies are set forth in the FAR. Several "levels" of the FAR exist because each agency head is authorized to supplement the top-level FAR to address agency-specific issues. For example, the Defense Department, supplements the FAR via the Defense FAR Supplement ("DFARS"). Within DoD, each military service has promulgated service-specific regulations to further supplement the FAR and the DFARS (e.g., Army FAR Supplement ("AFARS"), Air Force FAR Supplement ("AFFARS"), Navy Acquisition Procedures Supplement ("NAPS")). Within each military service, lower-level commands also might issue their own command-specific supplements. For example, various Air Force commands have further supplemented the FAR, DFARS, and AFFARS (e.g., Air Combat Command FAR Supplement ("ACCFARS"), Air Force Materiel Command FAR Supplement ("AFMCFARS"), Air Force Space Command FAR Supplement ("AFSPCFARS"), and Air Force Reserve FAR Supplement ("AFRCFARS"). While the FAR might highlight the end-game socio-economic goal (e.g., small business, environment, labor policy), the FAR supplements highlight how -- or whether in some instances -- a particular agency intends to achieve that goal.

Fourth, the President issues Executive Orders (see, e.g., "Greening the Government" initiative) to address certain issues, while the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (which, as of this writing, still exists as part of the Office of Management and Budget within the Executive Office of the President) issues Policy Letters to address other topics. Other officials issue memoranda as well.

Fifth, our court system interprets the statutes, regulations, etc. to resolve disputes arising from the implementation of policies.

Sixth, the federal procurement system is affected by a wide variety of competing interest groups (e.g., trade associations, unions, special interest groups, and others ) with conflicting objectives typically not found in a purely commercial environment. Our elected officials -- ever-sensitive to offending a potential bloc of voters -- therefore, make tradeoffs to reach consensus before implementing policies.

In re: State procurement, each State has its own procurement model, including statutes, regulations, and judicial decisions -- none of which I can comment on at this time.

Again, this is only a top-level, broad-brush discussion. I hope that you find it useful.

By Lee Digings on Saturday, July 8, 2000 - 08:18 am:

Thanks to everyone for the help on e-procurement in the US.

I'm trying my luck with another request.

What is the quickest way for me to get information on the various ways in which government procurement is used to promote wider policy objectives in the US.

I am thinking about support for small businesses, women and minority-owned business and similar schemes and initiatives around the environment.

I am interested in both the thinking behind this and the regulations themselves. Are all the federal rules included in the FAR (downloading it now)? Does every state and local government have its own acquisition regulation?

Again, I am grateful for your help.

Lee Digings
Senior Best Value and Procurement Consultant
Improvement and Development Agency (London, UK)