President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders aim to transform government procurement by prioritizing commercial technology over custom-built solutions, potentially saving billions in taxpayer dollars while opening federal contracts to innovative companies, according to Palantir Technologies Inc.‘s PLTR Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar.
What Happened: Sankar praised the procurement reform initiative in an article on X, highlighting that “the default is commercial, and this time it has teeth,” unlike previous reform attempts.
The overhaul includes three executive orders signed in April. The first directs the Pentagon to use faster procurement pathways like Other Transaction Authority “to the maximum extent possible” and evaluates acquisition personnel on their ability to move quickly and purchase commercial products.
Two subsequent orders mandate a review of the 2,000-page Federal Acquisition Regulation and enforce compliance with the long-ignored Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA).
The orders aim to cut through regulatory barriers that have prevented innovative commercial companies from working with the government and created what Sankar describes as a “regulatory labyrinth” of procurement.
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Why It Matters: According to Sankar, despite FASA establishing a government-wide preference for commercial items in 1994, implementation faltered. The Department of Defense in 2022 spent three dollars on non-commercial goods and services for every dollar on commercial options.
Palantir previously sued the federal government in 2016 to compete for an Army intelligence platform contract, ultimately winning in federal court based on FASA requirements that had been sidestepped.
The reform coincides with Palantir’s expanding government presence. The company recently partnered with Alphabet Inc.’s Google Public Sector to enable government agencies to access software applications on Google Cloud’s accredited infrastructure with enhanced security compliance.
“Executed faithfully, these EOs can transform how the federal government spends your money and interacts with the most innovative parts of our economy,” Sankar wrote, adding that success would mean “America’s future is golden bright.”
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