Defense Contracts: Recent Legislation and DOD Actions Related to Commercial Item Acquisitions

Abstract

Data from the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG) show that as a proportion of the Department of Defense's (DOD) total contracting obligations, contracts awarded using commercial item procedures have gradually declined in a narrow range from fiscal years 2007 to 2016. These numbers, however, do not reflect the full extent to which DOD acquires commercial items because FPDS-NG only captures information on whether or not commercial item acquisition procedures were used to acquire the product or service, and not whether items purchased are commercial or not commercial.