Obama Orders New Contracting Rules in Bid to Save $40 Billion

By Kim Chipman and Julianna Goldman

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama ordered administration officials to set new rules on government contracting in a bid to cut as much as $40 billion in federal spending.

“Even if these were the best of times budget reform would be long overdue in Washington,” Obama said in announcing the order. The new rules are needed now, he said, because “my administration inherited a fiscal disaster.”

Obama signed a presidential memorandum that calls for an overhaul of a “broken” system of government contracting, whose spending has doubled over the past eight years to more than half a trillion dollars.

The Democratic president is seeking to halt outsourcing of work that could be done by the government and to open up contract bidding to small businesses. He also wants to increase oversight of weapons acquisitions and end unnecessary “no-bid” contracts.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net; Julianna Goldman in Washington at Jgoldman6@bloomberg.net.

Source:-Bloomberg.com