Review of Acquisition Policy Set to Begin A yearlong review of federal acquisition policies is about to begin, with the appointment of an Acquisition Advisory Panel mandated by Congress. OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy announced that the panel will hold its organizational meeting Feb. 9 in Washington. The panel was created under the Services Acquisition Reform Act in 2003. The Act called for the appointment of “recognized experts” to “review laws and regulations regarding the use of commercial practices, performance-based contracting, the performance of acquisition functions across agency lines of responsibility, and the use of governmentwide contracts.” The 14-member panel’s chairperson is Marcia Madsen, a Washington lawyer and a former chair of the American Bar Association’s Section on Public Contract Law. Seven members come from government and seven from the private sector. (See list, below.) “This nonpartisan panel consists of very capable and respected individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds, both within and outside the government,” said David Safavian, administrator of federal procurement policy. “We look forward to receiving the panel’s recommendations on effective ways to improve government contracting.” The Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, charged that the panel “will be dominated by contractor interests and advocates.” OMB officials have said the panel will hold a series of meetings to hear public comments. Panel members are: *Louis Addeo, president of AT&T Government Solutions; *Frank J. Anderson Jr., president of the Defense Acquisition University and a retired Air Force brigadier general; *Allan V. Burman, president of the Washington consulting firm Jefferson Solutions and a former administrator of federal procurement policy under Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. *Carl DeMaio, president of The Performance Institute, which describes itself as “the largest government reform think tank in the nation;” *Marshall J. Doke Jr., partner in the Dallas law firm Gardere Wynne Sewell; *David Drabkin, deputy associate administrator for acquisition policy, General Services Administration; *Jonathan Etherton, vice president, Legislative Affairs of the Aerospace Industries Association of America, and a former staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee; *James A. “Ty” Hughes Jr., deputy general counsel for acquisition for the Air Force and a former partner in the Washington law firm Patton Boggs; *Deidre Lee, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, Department of Defense; *Tom Luedtke, assistant administrator for procurement, NASA; *Marcia G. Madsen, Washington-based partner in the international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw; *Melanie Sabelhaus, deputy administrator, SBA; *Joshua I. Schwartz, professor of law and co-director of the Government Procurement Law Program, George Washington University School of Law; and *Roger Waldron, director, Acquisition Management Center, GSA’s Federal Supply Service.