A Whitehouse memo last month, titled in part: “Transforming the Marketplace: Simplifying Federal Procurement” includes a statement that “the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council… shall take steps to identify and remove or revise any outdated regulations” including “submission of bids via telegram or fax”.
More seriously, the memo also talks about the new push towards ‘Category Management’ – an attempt to reduce contract duplication, and better manage commonly-purchased goods and services,which amounts to almost half the federal government’s overall spending..