The president-elect appears set on becoming personally involved in the contracting process. How far can he actually go?
At first glance, Trump would appear to face significant obstacles in using federal contracts as a form of leverage. But conversations with nearly a dozen contracting experts, many who previously worked on procurement issues for the government, suggest that Trump could easily blow through them — and despite the complex bureaucracy, there would likely be few brakes on his use of the process to score political points, reward his friends and punish his enemies. If he does, it could have another effect as well: driving up prices for federal government purchasing overall.
.. “Boeing’s not going to challenge them on that. If you shoot at the king, you better kill him.”
.. However, that program is years in the making and the Chinese and Russians are developing their own variants of the F-35 jet.
.. just the possibility that Trump could use the contracting process in such a manner could have significant implications across the government and economy, creating new uncertainty for both companies and contracting officers.
.. The ultimate result of Trump threatening to terminate federal contracts, whether to prevent companies from moving overseas or to cut down on perceived waste, could be higher costs for the government. Companies, faced with the increased risk of termination or negative publicity from an angry tweet from the president, would likely raise their prices in response, experts said. “With long-term complicated programs, the things that drive up prices are instability and uncertainty,” Schooner said. “That’s what he just added to the process.”
The president’s involvement in federal procurement is also likely to also slow the process.