Center for Government Contracting News

This session focuses on how the RFO will affect industry as they grapple with changing terminology, regulation vs. guidance, and how they should be thinking differently about market signals coming from the new policy

Each month, the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting highlights federal acquisition policy signals GovCon practitioners should not miss. This is a practical readout on how policy movement may affect the way agencies buy, how contractors compete, and where acquisition judgment matters. This brief covers July 2026.

The suspension of CMMC Phase 2 should not be reduced to a win for industry or a setback for cybersecurity. It is a stress test for whether DoD can build a cyber assurance model that works in practice, not just in policy.

Federal procurement policy should therefore focus less on eliminating intermediaries and more on catalyzing added value from Resellers and ensuring that intermediary compensation reflects demonstrable value creation.

Richard A. Beutel, senior fellow of the center, examines the growing shift from traditional hardware procurement and perpetual software licensing toward cloud computing, subscription-based services, DevSecOps delivery models, and integrated digital capabilities. As federal agencies increasingly acquire technology as an ongoing service rather than as stand-alone products, the study asks a fundamental question: What constitutes “value added” in today’s federal technology marketplace?

A panel discussion moderated by Senior Fellow Stephanie Halcrow focused on the Baroni Center Report on the relative advantages of velocity, speed, and agility in development, procurement, and deployment systems to include evaluating the use of flexible procurement authorities, streamlining traditional requirements and review processes, and tying contractor incentives and performance metrics to on-time delivery and production capacity.

Researchers conclude faster contracting lead times reduce costs, accelerate development and production timelines, and advance critical technologies for the U.S. Military

What happens when the government lets AI decide—and industry pushes back? The Baroni Center is tackling a question that isn’t if—but when.

Federal acquisition leaders are under growing pressure to move faster. Agencies are being asked to modernize procurement operations, reduce procurement administrative lead time, and process increasingly complex acquisitions with a workforce that is often stretched thin. At the same time, proposal volumes continue to increase, technical submissions are becoming more sophisticated, and evaluators are expected to absorb massive amounts of information under compressed timelines. Against that backdrop, it is not surprising that agencies are beginning to explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could assist the source selection process.

Weapon system operational readiness has been on a steady decline over the last two decades. This decline in readiness rates has been highlighted by the General Accountability Office, the DOW Inspector General, and DOW officials at various levels. Many of the issues affecting readiness are systemic. They are also fixable.