Center for Government Contracting Commentaries

The House Financial Services Committee’s hearing this week on the reauthorization of the Defense Production Act is timely and important. The DPA is an essential tool for national security that was little known prior to COVID-19. Its use during the pandemic helped the U.S. government mobilize its industrial base to allocate and distribute goods as well as make investments to build industrial capacity in critical areas such as ventilators and personal protective equipment during a time of national crisis. That recent experience, coupled with the daunting national security challenges facing us today, makes it a great time to strengthen the DPA for the future. Jerry McGinn's Opinion in Defense News shares how we can do it:

Secretary del Toro captures the essence of the anti-buyback argument, which has been articulated by Pentagon leaders for years: “You can’t be asking the American taxpayer to make even greater public investments while you continue, in some cases, to goose your stock prices through stock buybacks, deferring promised capital investments, and other accounting maneuvers.” Why do defense companies continue to pursue stock buybacks? It is principally the large mature defense primes such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and HII that buy back stock. These firms are profitable, generate significant cash flow, have a relatively low cost of capital and are not highly leveraged.

Jerry McGinn's latest in NIDA's National Defense Magazine on competition in the defense industrial base presents and how to unlock new levels of competition for Defense.

Dr. Jerry McGinn, the director of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, and Steve Grundman of the Atlantic Council and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University — who both lead the Pentagon’s industrial policy office — discuss the Biden administration’s first ever National Defense Industrial Strategy that was unveiled by last week with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian.

Tom Temin Federal Drive Podcast with Jerry McGinn on the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy.

In an Op-Ed written by Jerry McGinn for Breaking Defense, McGinn argues that the Pentagon can move more quickly if it heeds lessons from a previous life-or-death acquisition story.

An Opinion by Jerry McGinn for The Hill.

In a Reganism Podcast by Reagan Institute Policy Director Rachel Hoff, Jerry McGinn discuss the defense industrial base, working with allies on transnational industrial cooperation to alleviate global supply issues like those seen in Ukraine, and ongoing hurdles faced by America’s defense industry.

In an Opinion written by Noah Rivers, Baroni Center Fellow, for C4ISRNET, new Cybersecurity Strategy authored by the Office of the National Cyber Director.

Common Defense Network (ComDef) Interview with Dr. Jerry McGinn on Industrial base issues and international participation. DPA, NTIB and AUKUS also covered.