Defense pact in Trump crosshairs
President demands more information on the cloud-computing contract sought by Amazon, Microsoft.
President Trump recently demanded more information about how the Pentagon crafted a massive cloud-computing contract it’s poised to award to Amazon.com Inc. or Microsoft Corp., in order to decide whether he should intervene.
The Defense Department is set to award the contract, worth as much as $10 billion over 10 years, to one of the two companies next month. Amazon, whose cloud-computing technology leads the market, is seen as the favorite.
But Trump recently was made aware of letters Republican members of Congress have written to the White House and military leaders complaining that the contract’s terms froze some companies — including Oracle Corp. — out of the competition, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Trump expressed frustration he wasn’t aware of the concerns and asked aides to show him the correspondence, the people said.
Trump said he’s interested in looking into the circumstances of the bid but didn’t indicate he’ll try to block the contract from being awarded to one of the two finalists, they said.
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who recently wrote to the Pentagon to express concerns about the contract, said in an interview that he discussed it with the president aboard Air Force One last week.
“He wanted to understand what the issues were, what our concerns were,” Johnson said.
Sen. Marco Rubio (RFla.) sent a letter to National Security Advisor John Bolton last week asking him to delay the contract award, saying the bid “suffers from a lack of competition.” Trump and Rubio spoke about the contract by phone the next day, a Rubio spokesman said. A person familiar with the call said that it sounded as if Trump was thinking about canceling the contract.
All of the people asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive procurement issue. Spokesmen for the White House and Pentagon didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Although Trump has leaned on defense contractors to reduce costs on contracts they hold — and even to paint new Air Force One planes in his choice of colors — it may be unprecedented for a president to intervene in a defense competition while it’s underway.
The cloud-computing program, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, has been contentious. Companies including Oracle and IBM Corp. waged a fierce campaign against the Pentagon’s plan to award the contract to a single company.
Oracle lost a legal challenge last week contesting the terms of the bid and alleging the Pentagon had crafted unfair requirements and that Amazon had conflicts of interest. Republican lawmakers have taken up Oracle’s cause, pressuring the White House to intervene.
“Nothing good can come from President Trump becoming personally involved in an individual procurement, particularly one of this complexity,” said Steven Schooner, a professor of government procurement law at George Washington University. “Historically, the system has operated best with limited — to no — high-level political involvement.”