Greetings from Oklahoma, where I am wrapping up a busy week of travel that has included speaking engagements both at the Iowa Vendor Conference and The Indian Country Business Summit.

While I’ve been on the road, it has also been a noteworthy week in government contracting news. This week, SmallGovCon Week In Review takes a look at stories about the year end spending frenzy, the Freedom of Information Act may undergo major changes, DoD is barely exceeding 50% when it comes to meaningful competitions, and much more.

• The projected federal contract spending is on a decidedly upward slant with two issues affecting the year-end spending frenzy. [American City & County]
• What impact will the outcome of the presidential election have on the government contracting landscape? [GovBizConnect]
• Federal agencies could soon face a new governmentwide guidance on how they respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, following an upcoming meeting in September. [Federal news Radio]
• The Office of Federal Procurement Policy has launched a dashboard to hold agencies accountable to meet the goals in the category management memos. [Federal News Radio]
• With worry that only 56.5 percent of the DoD’s contracted dollars involved a meaningful competition between two or more vendors, they have issued a series of corrective actions to reverse a downward slide that has been ongoing for nearly a decade. [Federal News Radio]
• Several speculative conclusions can be made based on fiscal 2015 government contracting data and, according to one commentator, the outlook is not positive. [Federal News Radio]
• The FAR Council published the final rule regarding the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, which imposes a host of new obligations on government contractors, including an obligation to report various labor law violations during the bid and proposal process. [The Hill]
• A former MCC Construction Company officer and owner pleads guilty to conspiring to defraud the government. [The United States Department of Justice]