OMB’s Office of Federal Procurement Policy has already adopted several changes related to interagency and performance-based contracting that the Acquisition Advisory Panel will include among its recommendations. Robert Burton, OFPP’s associate administrator, said OFPP will focus its attention next year on the panel’s proposals.

Many people in the federal contracting community say the panel’s work could have a far-reaching effect on how industry interacts with federal agencies. For that reason, they have offered their views to the panel members.

“I think we heard from virtually every potentially interested corner of the community, including commercial companies that really are not government contractors,” Madsen said.

The Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 created the Acquisition Advisory Panel, whose purpose is to propose changes to acquisition laws, regulations and policies. The panel has reviewed commercial practices and performance-based and interagency contracting. Madsen said most of the panel’s recommendations would not require congressional legislation to implement.

Those proposals, which the panel has released in draft form, have stirred a storm in the government contracting community. Six industry groups announced in August that they opposed many of the panel’s draft proposals, which they said could erase a decade of procurement changes that they think have been beneficial.

Many in the federal contracting community agree that Madsen is well-qualified for her position as the panel’s chairwoman, and they say she is well-regarded. But “the positions she takes aren’t,” said Larry Allen, executive vice president of the Coalition for Government Procurement.

Several industry executives say Madsen was a controversial choice as chairwoman, but she laughed at that notion.