Defense Dept. to Push Competition for Services
The Defense Department will “focus on competition” in contracting for services, said Shay Assad, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy.

Report: Security Clearances Moving Faster
The government is “making significant progress” in speeding the processing of security clearances, according to an interagency working group, as the Bush administration is reportedly considering scaling back the investigations that are required before a clearance can be granted.

Small Firm Wins Big Energy Deal
The Department of Energy has awarded SCI Consulting Services an IT support services contract for its Office of Science, Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security Administration in Oak Ridge, TN.

DHS Awards First Source Contracts
The Homeland Security Department named 11 vendors to receive contracts under the First Source set-aside procurement for commodity IT hardware.

Army Awards ITES-2H Contracts
The Army has awarded contracts to two small businesses and four large ones in its Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – 2 Hardware (ITES-2H) competition worth up to $5 billion over five years.

Bush Signs Funding Bill; Memo Tells Agencies How To Live With It
President Bush has signed the bill funding most federal agencies at 2006 levels for fiscal year 2007.

Contractor Ethics Rule Is Proposed
Federal contractors receiving awards worth more than $5 million would be required to establish a written code of ethics and to provide ethics training for employees under a proposed rule issued by the Federal Acquisition Regulation councils.

New Opportunities For GSA Schedule Contractors
Under an interim rule printed in the Federal Register on February 1, the General Services Administration granted state and local government the right to use Federal Supply Schedules to purchase products and services to aid in recovery from major disasters and from terrorism, nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological attacks.

Federal Travel Systems Under Fire Again
House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez may try again to kill GSA’s electronic travel booking system, the newspaper Federal Times reported.