Trump Orders Spark Government-Wide Acquisition Overhaul

Federal agencies are ramping up efforts to modernize procurement by embracing emerging technologies and streamlining outdated processes in response to the Trump administration’s aggressive acquisition reform agenda. At the center of this effort is the April 2025 executive order, Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement, which directs sweeping changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to reduce red tape and boost efficiency across government operations.

According to the order, the FAR Council will remove unnecessary barriers from FAR to “ensure that it contains only provisions that are required” or necessary to support a simple and secure procurement system. The FAR changes align with the administration’s previous orders on efficiency in procurement.

New Acquisition Policy Chief Targets Efficiency

The council is housed within the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Office of Government-wide Policy (OGP). GSA announced the appointment of Larry Allen as associate administrator of OGP in March. Allen’s leadership will shape acquisition policy with a focus on modernizing procurement strategies and driving greater efficiencies in government-wide operations, according to a GSA press release.

As associate administrator, Allen will lead GSA’s efforts to develop and implement policies that drive efficiency, transparency and innovation across federal acquisition, real estate and technology programs. Allen told GovCIO Media & Research in a statement that he expects “many processes to be revised or dropped.”

“Government operations can be so process-driven that fulfilling the actual mission becomes secondary … my focus is on ensuring we meet each and every deliverable on time while delivering a professional work product,” Allen said. “Any process that interferes with that will be scrutinized.”

Allen added that he is impressed with the OGP’s organization so far, highlighting that each division has a strategic plan to serve stakeholders like agencies and contractors. He said one the office’s primary goals is to ensure the federal offices served by the OGP can use the office as a resource to develop strategic plans.

“A strategic plan should not make an office inflexible or impervious to change. The current environment is clearly one where adaptation and flexibility are important. Ensuring the strategic plan effectively meets administration priorities is key,” said Allen.

Overhauling Acquisition

Acquisition rule changes to leverage technology are not new. In 2024, the Biden administration brought forward the Better Contracting Initiative to leverage data, strategic sourcing and improve requirements definition for cost savings, Laura Stanton, deputy commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service, told GovCast last year.

“We have to get creative and ensure that government officials can still negotiate and enhance their innovative contracts,” Stanton told GovCIO Media & Research in 2024 when she was FAS assistant commissioner of the office of information technology. “We’ve seen the Department of Defense use these tactics to save hundreds of millions in the last several years.”

The Trump administration is attempting a more aggressive acquisition overhaul through an emphasis on speed and commercial solutions, Allen said. The changes are already being felt throughout government, he added.

“I’ve been amazed at the pace of change and work that our office, the Office of Management and Budget, NASA and DOD have done in taking massive line outs from the current rules,” Allen said during the Professional Service Council’s Federal Acquisition Conference 2025 earlier this month. “[Agencies are] trying to boil things down as close as we can get to statutory requirements and we inevitably will have to add some non-statutory things in government.”

Agencies are Preparing to Streamline Contracting

Agencies are preparing for changes to FAR by using technology. Department of Agriculture IT Cybersecurity Manager Rudolf Rojas said that his agency is already using emerging technology to better adapt to changing contracting requirements.

“We’re using AI to analyze a lot of the acquisition vehicles that are coming out and all the requests for equipment, technologies and applications, and making sure that they meet certain requirements,” Rojas said during ATARC’s Public Sector Cyber AI Convergence Summit in June. “From that standpoint, we’re using AI also for [requests for proposals] and acquisitions of contract support.”

Allen told GovCIO Media & Research that contracts and agencies alike need to adapt to the technology requirements, executive orders and new regulations.

“If a federal contractor doesn’t have a plan on how to properly address the federal market they will not be successful,” Allen said. “The ‘throw it against the wall and see what sticks,’ approach is a recipe for frustration. It’s the same inside government. A strategic plan on what you will provide, to whom, and how all pieces are important to successful execution is paramount.”

DOD offices are constantly changing to meet evolving needs on and off the battlefield, according to DOD Chief Defense Industrial Base Cybersecurity Stacy Bostjanick. The changes to requirements like the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification and the White House executive order create opportunities for innovation while maintaining security and standards, she added.

“Contracting and acquisition is going to evolve. Is it ever going to get to be to the point where DOD or somebody can just go, I like your stuff, I’m buying it? No,” Bostjanick said during the PSC event in June. “There’s always going to be due process that’s going to have to happen. And as a part of that, we’re going to have to continuously ensure that the products and services that we do buy and ingest into the department meet the criteria and the safety of cybersecurity.”

Adapting to Acquisition Changes

Allan Burman, former administrator of OMB’s References Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said that the White House actions require agencies to adapt their workforces. In addition to the procurement-specific executive order, the White House’s Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base order requires agencies and contractors to innovate, he said.

“If you look at the defense spurring innovation executive order, there’s a whole section … about training people to be less risk averse, to incentivize people to do these kinds of things: to put up training teams that are going to help them learn how to do that job and to put in new performance metrics that are going to be evaluating whether people are, in fact, taking risks, doing things differently,” Burman said at the PSC event. “There needs to be a sense of urgency. You have to do something.”

Defense Logistics Agency Deputy Director of Mission Assurance Peter Battaglia said this month that the changing rules are critical to keeping DOD at the forefront of readiness and that acquisition, logistics and supply chain resilience are fundamental to battlefield success and national security. DOD’s Supply Chain Risk Management Taxonomy Version 2.0, published in January 2025, gives contractors and DOD ways an “artist’s pallete” of options for better contracting.

“DOD’s published risk taxonomy 2.0 …goes through 12 major risk categories, 95 subcategories … it’s intended as an artist palette,” Battaglia during the PSC event. “You get to select from the artist palette, which I think enables a common lexicon between commercial industry, as well as DOD. [It also] enables flexibility and negotiation.”

Battaglia said that government needs a comprehensive, risk-based approach to supply chain management — using advanced data analytics, incentivizing industry cooperation and leveraging policies like the Defense Production Act.

“We need to build trust, foster innovation and adapt our acquisition frameworks to meet the threats of tomorrow,” he urged.

Moving Acquisition Innovation Forward

The White House’s executive orders and FAR overhaul call for OGP to centralize the procurement of “common goods and services” across the federal government, by leveraging GSA’s expertise in category management to consolidate contracts, streamline systems and scale procurement volumes. Allen said that OGP is pushing procurement innovation forward.

“OGP currently does a good job of clearly communicating with internal and external constituencies and intends to keep the level of communication and service high. We’re already doing a very good job of meeting administration priorities and doing so in a timely manner,” Allen told GovCIO Media & Research. “OGP has a solid reputation of assisting federal customers whether inside or outside of GSA. We can also have a role in helping other agencies improve their policies and practices to ensure the timely fulfillment of their missions.”