This strikes us as good news. There is a move being led by close White House ally Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) to give federal departmental inspectors general more power to investigate contracting practices. Their main focuses would likely have to do with the use of foreign contractors and the general rapid growth in contracting (it reached over $500 billion last year). But one would think that increasing these inspectors' general power, as well as the existence of McCaskill's new oversight Senate subcommittee, might increase the odds that federal procurement aligns with the legal requirement that 23% of all contracts in each department go to small businesses, instead of, you know, not.
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