ICYMI: Keynote Fireside Chat from Acquisition and Innovation Forum 2026

In this episode we feature ACT-IAC’s Acquisition and Innovation Forum's keynote fireside chat with Ann Marie Johnson and OMB/OFPP’s Mathew Blum on the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) to restore common sense, put mission first, and shift from compliance to empowered business judgment. Blum explains the executive order’s call for a simpler, clearer FAR structured for speed and describes streamlining the FAR to statutory roots, including deviations that reduced the FAR by about 25%. They discuss change management, learning resources, and mission measures of success, speed, reduced cost, and competition, including small business participation, and how AI could improve information access, accelerate tasks, lower costs, and help buyers find existing contract vehicles.

Summary - A Hole in One with ACT-IAC

Voyagers Program | ACT-IAC

https://www.actiac.org/act-iac-event/fellows-friends-day-domaine-fortier 

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.

Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.
Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.
 
Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound

(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)

Transcript

HOST: [00:00:00] Hey there, and welcome back to The Buzz. ACT-IAC hosts some amazing events. Recently, we held our Acquisition and Innovation Forum, where government leaders and industry experts get together to explore how to streamline and simplify acquisition regulations. In this episode, we feature a fireside chat with Ann Marie Johnson and Mathew Bloom.
HOST: They talk about the revolutionary FAR overhaul and why it aims to restore common sense, put mission first, and shift from compliance to empowered business judgment. In case you missed it, here it is.
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: Good morning. How is everyone today? I brought a wonderful friend and colleague with me. He doesn't need much of an introduction, but I'm gonna introduce him anyway. Mathew Blum is with OMB and is with the Office of the Federal, um, Procurement [00:01:00] Policy, and he is joining me today for a fireside chat. So M- Mathew, thank you very much for making time out of your very busy day to come talk with me and with our friends here at ACT-IAC.
MATHEW BLUM: Thank you. Thank you. It is great to be here, and, um, I feel like we just had the fireside chat, uh, with two of the great luminaries in our, in our profession, Tim and Polly. 
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: Well, it's interesting. As I was listening to their comments, it, it, it sounded a lot like the things that we're here to talk about.
MATHEW BLUM: Exactly. 
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: Yeah, and, and that's not by accident. Yeah, so we're here to talk about some of our favorite things, which are why, mission, people, strategy, AI, successes. And I'm excited to have this conversation. But let's start where Simon Sinek says that we should always start, and that is with why. 
MATHEW BLUM: Absolutely.
MATHEW BLUM: And, um, you know, the simple answer-- First, I sh- let [00:02:00] me, let me, uh, extend, uh, uh, my appreciation for having a few minutes to, uh, participate in your conference today. ActIAct, I think, is like the quintessential organization because you do what we need to do every single day, which is we learn and grow together.
MATHEW BLUM: We-- The whole is better than the sum of the parts, and ActIAct, by its very fabric, is bringing government and industry and academia together every day to solve problems. So, um, I, I really am excited, uh, to be here. And, um, you know, the-- So the answer on the, with why, which I think folks know, um, is, um, I guess if you look at the executive order, it talks about the need for a world-class acquisition that puts mission first, um, and is built around this framework that is simple, clear, and structured for speed.
MATHEW BLUM: Um, and, you know, for decades, literally for decades, administrations have told the acquisition workforce that you are [00:03:00] empowered to use business discretion. In fact, that's, that's a responsibility. But I think too often the system, as, as Tim and Polly pointed out, was sending an opposite signal. A FAR that has grown, uh, o- to over two thousand pages.
MATHEW BLUM: It was-- I don't know if it was half of that when I joined the system, but it gets larger and larger, um, with thousands, literally thousands of, of mandates. It's very hard, you know, from the acquisition workforce to be told that they have the power and all of the business discretion to get their job done and to literally look on every single page of the FAR and see multiple shalls and musts with lots of, you know, these being one size fits all.
MATHEW BLUM: I use the e-example of imagine that you were living in a very congested city, and the mayor says, "I've got an idea. I'm gonna give every resident a, a turbocharged engine so that they can get to their destination much faster." But the mayor [00:04:00] doesn't do anything to fix the roads, the potholes of the infrastructure, the stoplights that are out of kilter.
MATHEW BLUM: And guess what? What do you wind up with? You wind up that you have power- but no way to use it. And I think when you look at the number of shalls and musts that have existed in our regulation, um, you know, going back now for decades, I think that's exactly the situation that, that, uh, the workforce has been feeling.
MATHEW BLUM: And when we would tell them, you know, that, "Hey, don't, don't forget what the FAR says about having power to act," you would get lots of groans because we have a smart workforce, and they know how to read, and they know the, you know, the reality of the situation. And so what makes this revolutionary for the why is that for the first time in forty years since the, since the creation, actually forty-one years now since the creation of the FAR, we, you know, have a mandate and the momentum to reset how the government buys.
MATHEW BLUM: The president said we need to restore common sense in procurement, and I think all of us that have been [00:05:00] in the system get that, and people that aren't even directly in the system can see this. So, and, and, uh, Dr. Rhodes, our administrator, um, he refers to it as, as a reset, um, not just an adjustment. In fact, when we started this initiative, I think we were calling it FAR two point O, and he said, "No, that's not-- that isn't significant enough because that's just like another generation, and this is, is truly needs to be transformative."
MATHEW BLUM: So how are we creating that real power instead of elusive power? I think there's two ways, big picture, that I would point to. One is the, the direction of, that the EO gave us to streamline the FAR back to its statutory roots. So the FAR should only contain those rules that are required by statute or those non-statutory rules that are essential to sound procurement.
MATHEW BLUM: And in just six months, th- when the, from when the executive order was issued from about a year ago to last September, the FAR [00:06:00] Council issued deviations that you all are now familiar with that have re- collectively reduced the size of the FAR by about twenty-five percent or about five hundred pages, and equally, in fact, maybe more importantly, eliminated, uh, about twenty-seven hundred of these shalls and musts.
MATHEW BLUM: Now, not all of them have gone away, but as the FAR Council was looking at these, some of them are still good, but not necessarily rising to the level of something that's essential or should be im- imposed all the time. And so you'll see that a lot of those have gone into non-regulatory materials. And that's the second way in which we're empowering the workforce, right?
MATHEW BLUM: Because if you are, and it's ACT-I-ACT and, you know, folks here know a lot about IT. If you're a smart contracting officer but you don't know how to buy software, the fact that we have cut, you know, maybe thirty or forty percent of the coverage in Part Thirty-Nine might be helpful in getting you a little more competition, but it doesn't teach you how to buy [00:07:00] software if you didn't already know how to do that.
MATHEW BLUM: So the real j- juice, the real magic, and the real potential that Tim is referring to, to make sure that we don't just revert back to our o- old compliance framework, is that we need to give the workforce the resources that they need to get their job done. I would say that's the biggest challenge here, and the biggest, the biggest challenge that we have faced has been the fact that we know we need information at the time of need, and yet we really haven't had the platform to make that happen.
MATHEW BLUM: We have lots of smart people in our acquisition system that are well-trained and talented and, and very creative, but we've had, like, very narrow pathways. It's like driving, you know, in, in, in your favorite city in Italy, you know, where if you don't drive exactly right, you know, your side, you know, uh, view mirrors come off.
MATHEW BLUM: And that-- and so, yes, there are certain people that are pioneers that worked at our innovation labs, and they, they, they took the risks and they, and they [00:08:00] did well. Um, but you have a lot of other folks that are kind of wait and seers, and they, they wanna do things, but they also wanna learn and act by example.
MATHEW BLUM: So the second thing really is This are all of these resources that we've introduced that shame on us that we haven't done it so many, so many years earlier. But the FAR, uh, companion that really is providing back some of these good ideas that the FAR had but shouldn't be mandated in a regulation that help give you additional understanding about what those guardrails are doing and hopefully telling you how much leeway that you have.
MATHEW BLUM: The, the practitioner albums, which I think at least early on, were maybe the most favorite resource of our, of our workforce because it gave you that practical how-to application. And many of those ideas, by the way, came from the Periodic Table of Acquisition Innovation that we developed in partnership with all of you at ACT-IAC.
MATHEW BLUM: So it's, it's really so cool to see all of that come to [00:09:00] fruition on the big stage, if you will. And we also have, um, a buyer-- a buying guide that is, um, reflective of all of the goodness of our category managers. And that's really the key, is bringing together our regulatory drafters, our seasoned practitioners, our category managers, and all of our training folks all together.
MATHEW BLUM: Shame on us that we haven't-- that we didn't do that sooner. And I should say, maybe if the-- my proudest achievement will probably be through all of this, that the first person I called was Polly, and Polly can attest to that. And I said, "You need to be part of this process." And she, she gladly came over happily to, to GSA to, to stand up the, the practitioners group that is really the glue with everybody that's, that's in this room to, to bring-- to, to really actualize this the whole is, is greater than the sum of the parts.
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: Well, keeping good company is the secret to any [00:10:00] success. You've talked a lot about the people and what this means for the people. I'd like to pull that thread just a little bit more around what does this mean for the contracting officers, the program managers, the legal people, the industry partners here?
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: What does this revolutionary FAR overhaul mean for the people in practical terms? 
MATHEW BLUM: Right. So, um, you know, I hope that it's exciting and inspiring, but I mean, to be realistic, you know, we have to go into this eyes wide open and recognize that, you know, our workforce has more, more-- their hands more than full in keeping up with the very complex world.
MATHEW BLUM: And given that the, a number of people have left the government, our, our workforce has, has decreased by some. So there's probably some level of frustration and anxiety because you want to take advantage, but you also at the same time don't necessarily have the time to invest and understand what's going on, especially with the pace of how things are changing.
MATHEW BLUM: It isn't like, you know, "Hey, come on a Friday, and we'll talk for a couple hours, and here's a thing or [00:11:00] two." I mean, we're, we're putting out, you know, deviations, and we're gonna be putting out proposed rules that go from cradle to grave. And I think, you know, and, and I love the terms that you used, messy middle, you know, and, and unlearning habits, right?
MATHEW BLUM: 'Cause that really is the key to, you know, the change management is what do we do? And I think there are at least two objectives here that, that I have in mind, uh, that our office has in mind in managing change. Um, and it's not just us, it's, it's we've worked this with the FAR council and, and the agencies, and we actually have a slide, um, that we'd like to put up, um, to, that, um, uh, that we worked with Polly on.
MATHEW BLUM: Um, and you'll see from this two things. One is we wanna make sure that we recognize that people w- learn in different ways. People are very talented, and we all have talent, but w- we n- in order to unlock it, we need to meet people where they are. Some people like to learn by reading, other people like to learn by, by visualizing.
MATHEW BLUM: Some wanna learn in [00:12:00] communities of practice. We need-- it is our responsibility to make sure that we are creating resources that are meeting how people wanna learn and absorb, right? Because the whole point is, let's improve the efficiency of the learning process, reduce the time, you know, from when the need is to when you get the information that you need.
MATHEW BLUM: That's gonna make your job easier, and then you're gonna be-- get more, more, uh, satisfaction. So that's one, is recognizing that people learn differently. And the second is recognizing that resources have to, to support different needs. So we were doing a presentation to the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, and we had this long linear list of, "We're so proud of ourselves.
MATHEW BLUM: Look, we've got twenty-two resources." Well- You know, they're not actually all doing the same thing, and that's a good thing. Awareness is probably the first thing on people's mind because they're like, "What is this about?" But it's a lot more than that. You know, you have to have resources that are specifically focused on helping people do [00:13:00] deep dives and really gain the understanding of what the changes are about.
MATHEW BLUM: That's the knowledge understanding, that's the FAR companion, that's the category management buying guide. You know, we have workshops, we have office hours every week, um, and not just with-- for the workforce, but also for the supervisors and managers because this is a top to bottom change, and it's not gonna take hold unless everybody is participating in this.
MATHEW BLUM: It's the periodic table. And it's more than that, right? It's also learning by doing. It's actual application. And, and this is so critical too, because if people are busy and they know that they've got another peer that is trying to solve the same problem as they are, and they're able to use some of these new resources to get their customer satisfied faster and, you know, at a lower cost, they're gonna emulate that, right?
MATHEW BLUM: It, it doesn't-- and I can talk, you know, tone from the top and, you know, we can preach, but, you know, what really is most impactful is seeing your, your peers that are in the same s-- that are similarly situated being [00:14:00] able to solve problems. And then lastly, but equally important on this, is to have some sort of feedback loop for sharing information, right?
MATHEW BLUM: How often is it that, you know, people, you know, learn of something because they happen to talk to their smart colleague, or they happen to, you know, be reading something on the internet and they find out something by accident? Shame on us. Like, we should do anything and everything we can do to make our community smaller and bring the world closer to the desk of every single, you know, contracting officer.
MATHEW BLUM: So that's why, you know, we are emphasizing use stories and artifacts and trying, you know, experimenting with what are ways to make sure that that information is not only shared but is presented out again in these different forms that people need to use. So I, I mention this and we'll share this slide, and I know Polly is doing this as well.
MATHEW BLUM: I, I, I, I encourage you to share any sort of feedback on this, both in terms of are there resources that are [00:15:00] missing? Are there resources that are on there that you think are misplaced or that we shouldn't pursue? These are not perfect by any means, right? It's a, it's a, it's a growing and learning process.
MATHEW BLUM: But the most important thing I think I need to be doing from OFPP's vantage point is making sure that we are being organized in how we are deploying the resources so that we are-- we-- that all four of these buckets are all critically important and are all being satisfied. So if we've missed a bucket, you know, uh, I would love-- we would love to know that.
MATHEW BLUM: And again, if there are resources that are particularly helpful that we should double down on or others maybe we should use less That's a good thing. I, I would mention one point. This is at the government-wide level, but the good news is we've been talking to the senior procurement executives, and we've been getting some great information about how, you know, there's a lot going on within the agency so that they could actually have their own version of this chart.
MATHEW BLUM: I would probably just add, you know, as I look, like, at Marvin, uh, and [00:16:00] is doing great things at NASA, that there's probably, like, a governance bar at the bottom because, you know, that's obviously a critical part, is to make sure that folks in headquarters or, or in the regional, you know, offices have some sort of mechanism to make sure that they can see holistically what's, what's going on.
MATHEW BLUM: So it's, it's really exciting. You 
HOST: did 
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: such a nice job of walking us around each of the items from the people perspective. Let's now talk about another favorite thing, and that is mission. I'm gonna look out to the audience here. Here with ACT-IAC, our mission is to accelerate government mission outcomes.
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: Who's into mission here? You get a shout-out. Woo-hoo! Okay, so mission. How is mission driving the new acquisition process? 
MATHEW BLUM: So if, uh, Dr. Rhodes was here today, um, he would probably start with the three top priorities that he wants to accomplish or to see the, the acquisition system achieve so that he can say he's left it better than he found it.
MATHEW BLUM: And I think he is measuring, [00:17:00] uh, results, uh, primarily through three, um, um, uh, uh, uh, venues, uh, uh, and all of which are very familiar to you. One is speed, one is reducing cost, uh, and the third one is, um, competition. So if we take them one at a time, um, 'cause we're really trying to align all of our work to fit into one or more of these objectives.
MATHEW BLUM: Um, on speed, w-- I mentioned that, you know, we've eliminated the twenty-seven hundred mandates. Many of these are, like, how-to instructions, like how to define requirements, how to conduct market research, how to perform agile systems development. You know, these are things that are important for people to know, but not necessary for the FAR to put into a regulation that only, you know, exacerbates the compliance mindset, 'cause people then feel like, "Well, if it's in the FAR, I've got to follow it to the T."
MATHEW BLUM: And there are multiple ways to skin a cat as, you know, the [00:18:00] periodic table demonstrated to us, and we want people to a- you know, adopt and adapt, you know, to what new and better ways of doing business. So taking that out, I think, you know, is one important step to We're giving the capability to the system to be more agile.
MATHEW BLUM: We're also authorizing tools that work. So for many years, for decades, I think one of the biggest advances in the multiple award schedules is the use of the blanket purchase agreements. And interestingly enough, that came about in acquisition reform in the 1990s when Congress authorized agencies to, uh, do multiple award contracts.
MATHEW BLUM: And I think GSA feeling the competition said, "Hey, we need to keep up here." And so in order to improve the agility of the, of the, of the schedules, introduced the blanket purchase agreement so that people could use competition much more efficiently for repetitive buys. And you'll see, as you know in the RFO, that we- we've authorized this tool for use in, in multiple award contracts.
MATHEW BLUM: And we're [00:19:00] also highlighting simplified strategies. So for years we had the simplified procedures for acquisition, for commercial acquisition in Part Thirteen, and we put it in Part Twelve. It's, it's a small step, but an important one to make sure that, you know, the logic of the system is good. Um, and we're also, you know, for reducing costs.
MATHEW BLUM: So one is that we're making it easier to access the commercial market, and I think everybody saw when we made the changes to Part Twelve that we are trying to reduce that ballooning number of, of requirements that have been added to commercial buys, where the FAR council did it voluntarily and taking a really hard look and say, "Is this something that is furthering national security?
MATHEW BLUM: Is it something that's just good for, for procurement? Or maybe it's good for businesses." Like when you think about, you know, actions to, um, improve, like quick pay for small business that improves, you know, financial access to, to resources, that's a good thing. So we, we wanna keep things that work for the system, but we wanna take other things out.
MATHEW BLUM: We also [00:20:00] wanna reduce the number of requirements that are not directly related to mission performance. So, you know, think in the labor space, there are a lot of changes that we've made to eliminate requirements that are not required by statute while still ensuring that statutory requirements to protect worker rights are remaining in place and took a similar posture with, you know, in the environmental space.
MATHEW BLUM: Um, and then, um, we've also, you know, in terms of competition- Um, we are, um, uh, taking, uh, steps i-in addition to reducing the, um, the numbers to also make sure, um, you know, that we are taking steps to increase, uh, s- participation, especially by small businesses. So we double down on, um, uh, the, the efforts to, to do, uh, debriefings.
MATHEW BLUM: You know, we have, you know, formally recognized, uh, on-ramps, which we know a lot of, uh, agencies have been using. But, you know, we, and we wanna build a lot of that out through the FAR [00:21:00] companion, not, not in the FAR proper. Um, and then of course, our favorite is in part 15. I think when you look at the periodic table, I think most of the, uh, impactful innovations were all around, you know, how to improve communication after receipt of proposals.
MATHEW BLUM: And I, I think it's just so heartwarming to see how the FAR and the FAR companion are, are, are taking those pieces and again, you know, putting it on the big stage so that everybody benefits from it. 
HOST: Well, there's a whole 
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: lot of simplification. I love your metaphor that, uh, we're in a congested city with turbocharged cars, and now, uh, th-there's been more space that's been created.
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: And how does this additional space allow our acquisition community to focus on strategy? 
MATHEW BLUM: So I think that, um, you know, what's really, um, encouraging here is it, it truly is a, a, a cultural shift, right? Because we're going, we're, we are literally going from over-engineered regulations, you know, to a [00:22:00] focus on, you know, simplified rules that are practical, practitioner influenced, uh, and built, you know, for problem solving.
MATHEW BLUM: Um, and I, I, one, one kind of point here that I, I wanna make, um, uh, that's, that's so, so important here is, you know, just like the operational folks, policy people need to change how we think about this new world. And I keep on loo- keep looking at Tim, um, because you made the point so well about we have to behave like the world is different.
MATHEW BLUM: And this, this is very simple, but I never hear people saying it, and it's, it's just so important. You know, 'cause you go to these, you know, uh, im- like, self-improvement classes, you know, and then you go back to your office, and it's like you go back and fall into your old habits. So here's, here's one example of it, and it's a prominent one.
MATHEW BLUM: You know, uh, we still when I-- we have visitors, really good people, maybe some people in this room will come to see us, and they'll say, "You gotta change the FAR. This FAR provision is driving me crazy." Or, you know, "I wanna make sure that [00:23:00] people, you know, are using, you know, uh, doing consumption-based contracting," or, you know, "We gotta improve outcomes-based, you know, and performance-based," or you, you name whatever the thing is.
MATHEW BLUM: And, you know, we have to learn, um All of us, this is a, this is a challenge, but it's an important one, to take advantage of the FAR companion and our other non-regulatory resources, right? Because... And I, I'd had this... couple people have this conversation with me and say, "Yeah, that's nice, but people won't pay attention to it un- if it's not in the FAR."
MATHEW BLUM: Now, this is a cultural thing. People will pay attention to the FAR companion if we emphasize it in our activities, if, if our managers point to it, you know, if we put it in our own guidance documents, and if we talk about it, right? And not just talk about the FAR. It-- you have to make a concerted effort.
MATHEW BLUM: But just think about it. If there's a good practice, how quickly we can get something into the FAR companion, it doesn't have [00:24:00] to go through rulemaking, um, and it, it, and it's a much faster process. And it's, and it's part of this whole evolution that we started with, you know, with innovation, right? You go into the lab, and what is the lab all about?
MATHEW BLUM: It's about testing and sharing and proving and scaling. And the FAR companion is the way to be able to, to scale all of this, right? Because you test it. If a couple agencies and it works, you put it in the FAR companion. If it, if it needs to be adjusted, we make an adjustment. If it becomes something that's almost a truism because it's so good and everybody should do it all the time, we elevate it and put it into the FAR.
MATHEW BLUM: So that's a, that's a great example of how we have the resources and the platform that we haven't had before. In fact, I am hoping that as a, as a challenge that agencies will get c- so comfortable with the FAR companion that instead of continuing to, um, proliferate guidance at the agency level, you now have a place or a home to put these practices into the FAR companion.
MATHEW BLUM: We've asked agencies, every [00:25:00] agency, say, "Tell us one of your favorite practices that comes out of your own agency guidance, and don't, you know, ignore things that you think are everyday," because we all have different life experiences, and in fact, things that you take for granted are... you'll be, you know, be amazed to see are ones that other agencies are not aware of.
MATHEW BLUM: And if we can take a handful of those from every agency, we will have all sorts of great new materials for the FAR companion, and we'll also give agencies the ability to move away from feeling a need to have to maintain these documents. 
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: The excitement with which you speak of this change, it so echoes what Polly and Tim were talking about.
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: This is a people-first revolution. This is about moving from compliance to delivering the mission outcomes that we need and looking at what are the practices that are gonna get us there, not constraining us by compliance, but setting us free to know what are the best ideas that, that other people have been incorporating and been successful at [00:26:00] doing.
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: I'd like to talk about AI. AI is transforming everything about the world. What excites you the most about AI and the AI in the RFO world? 
MATHEW BLUM: I, I think simply put, it's the fact that if it's used correctly and used well, AI gives us the ability to drastically improve the efficiency by which information is shared, by, by which all of the intelligence and experiences of our, you know, uh, wonderful workforce can be applied by agencies.
MATHEW BLUM: It, it's, it's closing that gap that has, has held us back, you know, over the decades. Uh, and we are, you know, actively working, um, uh, behind the scenes to be able to take all of these resources and pull them together. I remember when we first started the process, uh, the wonderful Ralph Nash, professor from, uh, George Washington University, said he was a little nervous, and he said, [00:27:00] "Well, you know, the FAR is like the Amazon of procurement."
MATHEW BLUM: And I think what he meant by that was the fact that it's like, because ev- there's so much knowledge that's in, in the FAR, right? And I got it. It's just that, as we've been talking about, you know, you can't use that as the source of, of information 'cause it wasn't designed for, you know, all of the, all of the needs of, of the workforce.
MATHEW BLUM: But I understand that we do-- we, we don't wanna lose the knowledge, and we don't want our workforce to feel that, you know, we had one document, and now we have this proliferation of documents, and I'm gonna get caught again because I didn't look at the FAR companion. I didn't remember to look at the practitioner album.
MATHEW BLUM: I didn't look at two other things that my agency has put together. AI can help solve all of that because, again, it's gonna bring everything forward. So, you know, it can help in speeding up tasks, whether it's market research or solicitation development, to accelerate acquisitions. It can help to lower costs by, you know, improving the government's negotiation power by giving access to prices paid information and moving the [00:28:00] workforce to more higher value work.
MATHEW BLUM: And it also can create, you know, more competition and a more resilient marketplace by making it easier for buyers to find and leverage existing vehicles. That's one of the early areas of low-hanging fruit, you know, and it fits perfectly with the whole consolidation effort. It's like, if we've spent the money to create a vehicle that's there and works well, you know, let's make sure that people aren't not using it just because they don't know it exists, and they didn't realize that there was a vehicle ready-made for them to get, help them get their job done.
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: Well, Mathew, time's flown by. We've actually exceeded our time by a couple of minutes. I could talk with you for hours, and I'm sure our audience would love to hear more of what you prepared to share. Uh, but we've gotta get off the stage because we've got excellent content that's gonna follow. I'd like to ask everyone, please give Mathew a round of applause.
MATHEW BLUM: Can I, can I just say one more point? 
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: Sure. 
MATHEW BLUM: Just, I'm sorry, one more, one more thing. Not to overstay my welcome, but you know, what keeps me up at night isn't, you know, the complexity of the [00:29:00] system, but it's the complexity of the world in which we live. When, when I came into the system, we didn't have to think about terrorism, and natural disasters, and cyber threats, and drones, and improper uses of AI.
MATHEW BLUM: You know, all of that is, is, is really, you know, so, so difficult. And, you know, 10 years ago when we, when we kicked off, you know, the modern age of, of innovation and we asked people to appoint acquisition, you know, advocates and labs, the pioneers at th- those labs did great things, but a lot of people were skeptical and said, "You know, this isn't scalable."
MATHEW BLUM: And the critics didn't believe it, and I think the RFO gives us the stage to prove those critics wrong. And I'm so glad that Marvin is sitting in the front row, because all of us, several weeks ago, I'm not stealing your thunder, all credit to you and NASA, right? But we all had this moment of national pride as we saw, you know, the Artemis mission crew break the all-time record for going and traveling the farthest distance from Earth, right?
MATHEW BLUM: And everybody was super happy. And guess what? You guys were extra happy. Why? 'Cause this big secret is we're [00:30:00] part of that solution. Federal acquisition is part of that incredible, you know, record-breaking result, and it proves, it proves that we actually aren't bounded, we aren't bounded in our ability to scale, that if we, if we, if we take advantage of what we have been given here to help share and learn and grow together, we can leave for our children and grandchildren an acquisition system that truly is the envy of the world.
MATHEW BLUM: So thank you all for what you are doing. 
ANN-MARIE JOHNSON: Wow, what an encore. Thank you. Thank you very much. If 
HOST: you're passionate about technology and eager to explore more incredible events, make sure to visit actiac.org/upcoming-events. Keep your curiosity sparked and your calendars marked. Until next time, stay inspired and connected.