Ron Nixon presents "Investigating Government Contractors" during the Fall 2013 Society of American Business Editors and Writers Conference in New York, Oct. 4, 2013. Nixon is a domestic correspondent in the Washington Bureau of The New York Times. For more information on training for business journalists, please visit http://businessjournalism.org.

1. Investigating
Government Contractors
Donald W. Reynolds National Center for
Business Journalism
SABEW Fall Conference
New York, Oct. 4, 2013

2.
Ron
Nixon
• Washington
correspondent
for
The
New
York
Times
• Has
inves9gated:
o contractors
during
Hurricane
Katrina,
o problems
with
contracts
at
the
Small
Business
Administra9on,
o contractors
who
are
too
big
to
ban
despite
criminal
and
civil
charges
and
o contractors
who
were
doing
business
simultaneously
with
the
U.S.
and
Iran.

3. What You Will Learn
• Why
covering
government
contractors
is
important
and
affects
all
beats.
• How
contractors
are
cri9cal
to
the
func9oning
of
government.
• How
contrac9ng
works.
• How
to
track
government
spending
on
contrac9ng.
• How
to
inves9ga9ve
fraud,
waste
and
abuse
in
contrac9ng.

4. Why Investigate Contractors?
● Governments spends billions
each year on contractors.
● Contractors are taking on
larger roles as government
shrinks.
● They perform duties from
buying guns and planes to
analyzing intelligence (Edward
Snowden) to delivering food
and answering FOIA requests. Photo by abcnews.com

5. Why Investigate Contractors?
● There have been a number of instances of waste,
fraud and abuse involving contractors.
● Contractors play a role in legislative and
regulatory policy.
PhotobyU.S.Army
CorpsofEngineers

6. Spending on Contractors 2003-13
Source: usaspending.gov

7. A few
ideas for
stories on
contractors
Photo by flickr user notfrancois

8. Too Big to Ban

9. The Fourth Branch

10. Hedging their bets

11. Not So Small Biz

12. Hitting the Lottery

13. Following the Rules

14. Resources for covering
government contractors

15. All The Government Contractors

16. Your Turn
Search for "Lockheed Martin" at
usaspending.gov

17. The Contractor’s Data Contractor

18. FedBizOps

19. Getting High/Low Grades?

20. Contractors Behaving Badly?

21. The Federal Register

22. FAR cases

23. Protesting Contracts

24. SBA Size Protest

25. The Watchdogs

26. Say It Again, SAM!

27. From Government Employee to
Contractors

28. From Employee to Contractors,
continued

29. Government vs. Private

30. The Rulemakers

31. The Regulators

32. Questions?
Ron Nixon
The New York Times Washington bureau
nixon@nytimes.com
@nixonron