Center for Government Contracting Commentaries

Dr. Jerry McGinn, Executive Director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University &1698198534253-2 Former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, offers a candid and data-driven look at the current state of innovation across the federal government. With a background in both academia and senior leadership at the Department of Defense, McGinn brings unique insight into how the government is leveraging its power—not just to regulate, but to actively shape—its industrial base.

The defense industrial base is "not a simple false dichotomy between the industrial titans that have powered American defense for decades and the innovative trailblazers from Silicon Valley and Austin," writes Jeff Kojac in this op-ed.

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and numerous executive orders and Congress’s FoRGED and SPEED Acts have similar laudable objectives. How can they achieve breakthrough success?

Part of the answer is to create better measurements to assess progress toward desired objectives. With that goal in mind, our 2025 Government Contracting Trends and Performance Index examined the shape of the broad industrial base that supports all Federal government agencies, trends in government contracting, and the self-evaluated financial performance of government contracting firms.

New research from the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at the George Mason University shows the industrial base and competition are healthy.

"There's a lot more emphasis on team-based approach to developing requirements. A lot more collaboration," Emily Murphy said.

It is vital that Congress act this year to pass a five-year DPA reauthorization that refocuses the authority on urgent national security needs and strengthens our industrial base to prepare for threats from China and other adversaries. I was honored to testify before the Senate Banking Committee recently on this issue, and it was incredibly heartening to hear the strong bipartisan consensus for DPA reauthorization.

Jerry McGinn, Ph.D. testified before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for the reauthorization of the Defense Production Act.

Richard Beutel, a senior researcher for the Baroni Center for Government Contracting, says it’s time to renew share-in-savings legislation.

President Donald Trump’s “Eliminate Waste and Save Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement” executive order brings some old procurement practices back into fashion. Over the next 60 to 90 days, agencies, OMB and the GSA administrator have a lot of work to do to centralize procurement of common items back in GSA. To understand what this means for the procurement system, Federal News Network’s Terry Gerton spoke with Emily Murphy, former GSA administrator and current senior fellow at the George Mason University Baroni Center for Government Contracting on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The ability of the U.S. military to deter war and prevail if it happens — few are taking that for granted anymore. Executive Director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting Jerry McGinn in fact warned the Senate Armed Service Committee about it just this month. His concern centers on the ability of the defense industrial base to mobilize, he told the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.