Safavian Confirmed as Procurement Policy Chief The Senate confirmed President Bush’s nomination of David Safavian to head OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy. The nomination had been held up for more than a year by unrelated political disputes. Published reports said the new Senate minority leader, Harry Reid (D-NV) allowed a vote on Safavian and more than 170 other stalled nominations after the White House agreed to nominate a Reid adviser to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Safavian is a 37-year-old attorney, former congressional staffer, lobbyist and, most recently, chief of staff of the General Services Administration. He was nominated in November 2003 to succeed Angela Styles, who resigned in September of that year. At his confirmation hearing before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in April, he declare himself a friend of small business and recalled working in his grandfather’s small auto parts plant as a teenager. “If the acquisition officer isn’t sensitive to small business targets and goals, we are not going to reach those targets and goals,” he told the committee. Safavian will likely spend much of his time and energy on the administration’s competitive sourcing initiative, drawing on his experience as a congressional staff member to try to head off legislative restrictions on competitive sourcing.