The Trump administration recently released a new executive order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Cost Efficiency Initiative,” mandating federal agencies granularly track and justify contract, grant and loan payments, with the stated goal of making federal spending more transparent and efficient by “subjecting it to rigorous standards,” helping to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. The order also states that payment details must be made public and that the details of each payment must be accompanied by a “brief written justification” from the agency employee who approves it. Government Contracts Partner Maria Panichelli spoke with Law360 about the order and said it does not specify what those justifications should include, “but presumably the intent is to get a lot more detailed and to really put the agency through their paces in explaining why payments are being made.” For some contractors, the prospect that their pricing details or other information they consider confidential will be made public could dissuade them from doing business with the government, Maria said. “Transparency, obviously, is great, but it seems like it could potentially stifle competition.”
2.28.2025