Government By Contract

The dramatic growth of government over the course of the twentieth century since the New Deal prompts concern among libertarians and conservatives and also among those who worry about government’s costs, efficiency, and quality of service. These concerns, combined with rising confidence in private markets, motivate the widespread shift of federal and state government work to private organizations. This shift typically alters only who performs the work, not who pays or is ultimately responsible for it. “Government by contract” now includes military intelligence, environmental monitoring, prison management, and interrogation of terrorism suspects. Outsourcing government work raises questions of accountability. What role should costs, quality, and democratic oversight play in contracting out government work? What tools do citizens and consumers need to evaluate the effectiveness of government contracts? How can the work be structured for optimal performance as well as compliance with public values? Government by Contract explains the phenomenon and scope of government outsourcing and sets an agenda for future research attentive to workforce capacities as well as legal, economic, and political concerns.

The dramatic growth of government over the course of the twentieth century since the New Deal prompts concern among libertarians and conservatives and also among those who worry about government’s costs, efficiency, and quality of service. These concerns, combined with rising confidence in private markets, motivate the widespread shift of federal and state government work to private organizations. This shift typically alters only who performs the work, not who pays or is ultimately responsible for it. “Government by contract” now includes military intelligence, environmental monitoring, prison management, and interrogation of terrorism suspects. Outsourcing government work raises questions of accountability. What role should costs, quality, and democratic oversight play in contracting out government work? What tools do citizens and consumers need to evaluate the effectiveness of government contracts? How can the work be structured for optimal performance as well as compliance with public values? Government by Contract explains the phenomenon and scope of government outsourcing and sets an agenda for future research attentive to workforce capacities as well as legal, economic, and political concerns.

This new book revises, and adds new foci, to the authors' predecessor casebook Government Contract Law: Cases and Materials (2d ed. 2004). It retains the core chapters for a syllabus on the basics of government contracting law. The authors update the core chapters with short, student-friendly, tightly-edited cases. Many cases date from the 2000s, with most of the rest from the 1990s. These present current understandings of issues and doctrines in this rapidly evolving field. As new foci, the authors have greatly expanded the number of specialized chapters treating increasingly important topics. New chapters cover such fast-changing specialties as commercial and IDIQ contracting, intellectual property, health care, construction, government and contractor workforce, false claims and defective pricing, and government takings. Also, the book treats new procedures including protests of task order awards and claims for government breaches of contract. Dozens of fresh notes by the authors cover recent developments such as government acquisition of property rights in software, and contracting in the Afghan and Iraq wars. Tiefer and Shook bring academic and practitioner experience and expertise to their treatment of government contract law.

This book attempts to provide complete coverage of the rules of contract administration. This revised third edition explains the rules resulting from the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, the Competition in Contracting Act, the Prompt Payment Act and other key changes. Analysis of important case law and decisions provides an overview of the current legal environment.