The
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2018, in
addition to including passages involving regime change in Venezuela
and exorbitant expenditures on the maintenance and expansion of
American empire, continues to surprise: its latest draft includes a
measure that will cement a multi-billion dollar deal between the
Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. mega-corporation Amazon, run
by the world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos.
If
the NDAA is approved in its current form, which is highly likely
according to experts, Bezos’ Amazon sets to gain $53 billion in
revenue by becoming the chief supplier of an array of goods to the
Department of Defense. The deal is laid out in a section titled
“Procurement Through Commercial E-Commerce Portals,” in which the
DOD would be required to purchase commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
products — such as office supplies — from “e-commerce portals”
dominated by Amazon.
Though
congressmen — including the NDAA’s author, Rep. Mac Thornberry
(R-TX) — have asserted that there will be healthy “competition”
among such portals, Amazon’s massive advantages in these markets
are clear, particularly given how Amazon often overtakes markets on
its own “free market” platform by edging out third-party vendors.
In
addition, the Coalition for Government Procurement (CGP) stated in a
memo issued last month that only one or two companies would be able
to participate, given the parameters put forth by the current version
of the bill. Several industry sources cited by Bloomberg stated that
Amazon tops that very short list. The memo further argues that the
current proposal is likely to “result in monopoly or
duopoly control over access to the Federal market for commercial
items.” Given that Amazon accounted for 43% of all
online retail sales made in the U.S. last year, it is clear who
stands to benefit most from this new, proposed federal acquisition
model.
Indeed,
Thornberry’s own words make it clear that the proposal is set up to
disproportionately benefit Amazon. In June, Thornberry introduced
this aspect by the NDAA by stating that “if you’re buying
office supplies, you ought to be able to go on Amazon and do it.”
More:
Comments
Post a Comment