The Senate confirmed Joseph Jordan as the new administrator for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy within the Office of Management and Budget last Thursday.
President Obama nominated Jordan for the position in February, shortly after he left his position as an associate administrator at the Small Business Administration to join OMB as an advisor to then Chief Performance Officer Jeffrey Zients.
Jordan would replace Dan Gordon, who announced in November he was leaving to serve as associate dean for government contracts law at the George Washington University Law School.
At SBA, Jordan headed the set-aside programs for government contractors such as the 8(a) program that helps small government contractors win contracts.
When Jordan came to the agency, it had seen small business contracting drop the previous three years, falling short of the targeted 23 percent. In the 24 months that followed, it had the largest two-year increase in over a decade, thanks to the mobilization of several initiatives aimed at streamlining the processes the government uses with small businesses to award contracts.
“In any changes we made, it was never without working with the community to find out exactly what’s working, what’s not, and to find the best solutions,” Jordan told FedScoop in his final interview at SBA. “It was never about government coming in and telling people how to operate, but really listening to the ways that we could best help facilitate what they do.”
