In for a penny, in for a pound – Closing 2025 and Opening 2026

2025 has been one heck of a year, and I apparently ruffled quite a few feathers along the way by pointing out the obvious.

Early in January I started picking up on what would be a theme coming from certain segments of our GovCon community who started spinning a narrative about a program that I have been proud to support.  Even before 2025 I had to listen to a group of people who were supposed to be experts in government contracting continually characterize NASA and their SEWP program as something limited, niche, and needless - hearing the same old tropes peddled throughout SEWP V.

• It is just a hardware contract (FALSE – federal agencies have procured all kinds of hardware, software, and the associated services that they needed to address their mission needs).

• They don’t do services (FALSE – services have been procured through SEWP V for over 10 years).

• It is a niche program (This one was a whopper!  FALSE – the program processes more orders for federal buyers than all of GSA IT schedules, GSA IT GWACS, and NITAAC GWACs combined and is used by every federal agency in government.  That ain’t niche.).

• Schedules has everything on contract that SEWP has (FALSE – products MAY eventually make their way onto the GSA Schedules program, but NASA has always provided agencies a mechanism to buy at the speed of mission and technical relevancy.  Evidence?  Agencies have procured AI tools through SEWP a full year before OneGov).

• NASA uses the program like a slush-fund (FALSE - a classic case of projection. Because they used their Acquisition Funding Fee they assumed that others do the same. Not NASA. This claim easily disproven by GAO and annual financial audits required of the program. It actually made me laugh the thought that NASA would use a slush fund to...what...help fund self-landing rocket boosters? HA!)

I characterize these voices as the Architects of Inefficiency (because they were never able to create nearly as efficient and effective mechanism for federal agencies to procure IT while capturing the data necessary for Agency CIO’s and OMB to make assessments and drive decisions) and their Coalition of GSA-Centric, Schedule-Based, Self-Interests (because…well…I can’t help that it is an apt descriptor).  This was not a new story. In fact, it turns out that a group of individuals were the same people who attempted to eliminate the program 20 years ago.

I named names…and apparently, they didn’t appreciate me doing so.  They were interests elbows deep in the govcon cookie jar pushing forth policies that eliminated the competition through which they themselves would personally profit from – and even advertised it thinking that ‘this is just the way things work, and nobody should know the better or say anything’.  Unfortunately, they didn’t expect a lone voice out there pointing out that these Emperors of Inefficiency (ok…a new one) had no clothes.

Godfather II - Sometimes all you have to do is show up.

This group backed an initiative into an Administration, while also backing up the Brinks trucks to ‘help’ companies adjust to this future that they tried to manifest.  They didn’t hide it at all…in fact they still don’t.  If they were to succeed, they would have created monopolistic control over government-wide contracting policy, and a monopoly on government-wide contracting mechanisms.

It isn’t the blatant opportunism that bothered me (this is Washington DC after all).  It was the bullying of an agency who plays a primary role in government contracting, the bullying of a dedicated 48-year civil servant, and the bullying of a program who did nothing but succeed at serving federal agency mission needs.

They repackaged old, unworkable ideas while mischaracterizing another agency program under the banner of “Common Sense” – and had agency press releases and a the GovCon fake news networks amplifying this all along the way. They put the “Con” in GovCon”.

Now these interests are beginning to see the writing on the wall.  Despite their renewed efforts, these interests were not successful in closing the program and eliminating them as competition in 2025 (there is no competition – NASA created the most efficient and effective government-wide mechanism through which to procure IT products and services in existence.  Period.  Full stop.  The numbers prove it out.) 

In the spirit of turning the page on a new year, I have a resolution that in 2026 I will not be as confrontational towards this group of interests.  But…there are still a few days before 2026…so like anyone looking to give something up for the new year, I have a few days before attempting to drop this habit.

What would make it easier for me to uphold my 2026 resolution?  Simple.  NASA and their program deserve an apology.

Godfather II - "NASA's SEWP Program's reputation in GovCon is Impeccable, Senator."

NASA and their program deserve an apology from Roger Waldron, Bill Gormley, Emily Murphy, Alan Thomas, and their Coalition of Self-Interests for trying again what they failed to do 20 years ago, and for making false accusations of the agency and their program. NASA and their program deserve an apology from them for purposefully misleading, mischaracterizing, denigrating, and delegitimizing NASA’s role in federal acquisitions and their contributions to government-wide acquisitions.  Being generous would accuse them of being misinformed. I saw this as them being malicious. Who wants to wager it is both?

NASA and their program also deserve an apology from members of the GovCon media and gum-flapping ‘expert’ class for utterly failing to fulfill their journalistic and professional duties to cover this as a story based on history, facts, and performance.  Instead, they just peddled a contrived narrative, amplified it, and never provided data, debate, or an alternative view.  Not once.  It was the GovCon version of the abusive, unnecessary, and unscientific controls placed on the country during COVID and the open borders migration charade that we were subjected to during the prior administration that resulted in President Trump's re-election. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  The egos and hubris of the people above I just identified will not apologize to NASA nor their program.  They should…but we all know they won’t.  In fact, I am predicting in 2026 that these same interests are going to point fingers at anyone other than themselves and instead blame others while claiming “I thought it was a dumb, misguided idea all along, but this is what the administration wanted.”  Yes, the idea is dumb and misguided – and who gave them the idea? 

Godfather II - Coalition of Self-Interests on Trial - "I don't know nothin' about that."

Yes, the idea is dumb and misguided – and who gave them the idea?  The same group that ironically changed their organization’s name BEFORE the administration was even sworn in to position themselves as aligned with the same EO under the guise of “Common Sense”.  Better…when they fail at achieving their objectives, they will instead place blame on OMB and OFPP for not following their advice.  In fact, these GovCon-artists have already laid that foundation earlier this year.

Funny thing about integrity is that you either have it or you don’t.  We now know who does, and who doesn’t.

What did we learn in 2025? The people who were supposed to be experts in procurement policy turned out to be just another set of interests looking to fix a game for their collective benefit – not the benefit of the federal government or federal agencies.  They sold an administration on a bag of goods of old, unworkable ideas wrapped in new fancy packages.

But the good thing about all of this is that we now know and see with clarity.  We see it for what it is - just another effort by interests to ‘fix the game’.  This is what was learned in 2025, and I hope not to harp on this anymore in 2026. 

Now what is in store for 2026?  I couldn’t be more excited about what is about to come - a decision by OMB and OFPP for NASA to retain the program that they have so responsibly stewarded for over 30 years, the award of SEWP VI with a new digital experience for their users, and the 250^th anniversary celebration of our great nation.

I want to thank OMB and OFPP for not allowing GSA to kill off NASA’s program as the Architects of Inefficiency and their Coalition of Self-Interests.  Now, in 2026, we can instead focus on making the Administration, OMB, and OFPP successful in what they seek to achieve – making an efficient, effective, and accountable public administration for the sake of federal agencies and for the country.

Oh…and the official launch of TheXchange.  They played games in 2025.  We’ll change the game in 2026.