This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.

The Trump White House this month announced two new executive orders radically changing procurement procedures, especially defense procurement procedures, in ways that will unleash waste, fraud and abuse. These orders — which largely flew under the radar — will effectively wipe out spending safeguards with potential effects that are hard to overstate considering that President Trump announced he will expand the defense budget to a breathtaking $1 trillion, and that the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, is no counterweight to politically driven spending.

To summarize, the new executive orders purport not merely to change or improve regulations, but to simply eliminate most of the existing procurement rules developed through years of oversight processes and outside scrutiny. They effectively undo procurement safeguards put in place after tremendous waste was exposed during the Cold War. In their place, the executive orders would elevate certain procedures that allow the government to spend unlimited sums without competition — the so-called “other transactions” process that need not be competed and that circumvents safeguards put in place to protect tax dollars. The Executive Orders say there should be a “first preference” for other transactions processes, which is like having a “first preference” for bringing a pistol with no safety to compete in a boxing match.

These revisions will also likely interfere with the system relied upon by competitors challenging improper awards, the “bid protest” system, which has long been a critical check on decisions made based on suspicious preferences rather than best value to the taxpayer. The........

© Talking Points Memo