A new circular published last week by the Office of Management and Budget sounds like the agency intends for its Category Management program to devolve into a low price, across-the-board commoditization effort.  If that’s not what leaders have in mind, the time is now to ensure that they send a clearer message to industry.  As written the draft circular, published for comment in the October 7^th Federal Register, seems to confirm industry concerns that CM, started as a way to reduce contract duplication and encourage best practices, will in fact, end up being the latest attempt to enforce centralized procurement approaches for services and products across at least all civilian agencies.  Such approaches have historically not done well given the diverse nature of multiple government agency missions and an insistence that there is little differentiation among the quality of services and products being provided.  Another challenge this draft circular faces is timing.  We are very near to the end of the Obama Administration and, as such, implementing any of the circulars recommendations run a high chance of getting swept to the side when a new team comes to town.  Contractors should definitely submit comments on the proposed circular, which can be found here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-24054.pdf

but remember that how and whether CM is carried out government-wide will be up to a new management team at OMB.