[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 13255-13256]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING MICHAEL B. SMITH

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I wanted to be afforded this opportunity 
to address the Senate. I recognize I may be all that is standing in 
front of the Presiding Officer and the folks who do such a good job of 
maintaining order in the Senate and adjournment so I will try to make 
my remarks relatively brief--relatively.

[[Page 13256]]

  I rise again today to honor another great Federal employee, Michael 
Smith. As the Director of the Strategic Source Program Office within 
the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, Mr. Smith has saved U.S. 
taxpayers an estimated $750 million over a 3-year period by merging the 
buying power of 22 different components within DHS.
  Mr. Smith recognizes--which I also recognized as Governor and I know 
the Presiding Officer did when he was the Governor of the great State 
of West Virginia--that centralized procurement operations is a critical 
step to creating efficiencies and savings in government.
  As Governor I fostered development of the State centralized 
procurement system, eVA, and mandated that all of the State's entities 
use that system for purchases. For example, we were able to reduce what 
we paid for lightbulbs in Virginia from 38 cents to 23 cents each. That 
didn't close a $6 billion shortfall by itself, but we buy a lot of 
lightbulbs in Virginia, and I know they do in West Virginia as well.
  Mr. Smith has taken a similar approach at the Federal level, and his 
accomplishment was no small feat. After analyzing the purchasing data 
at DHS, he identified several critical security problems and services 
that could be consolidated for purposes of purchasing, such as 
ammunition, uniforms, and communications equipment.
  He brought together the program and acquisition staff of 22 DHS 
components, including the Transportation Security Administration and 
Customs and Border Protection, to agree to work together. Mr. Smith's 
supervisors said that he listened to the different needs of the DHS 
components and was able to lead them to common solutions to meet all 
their individual requirements under a new contract.
  According to Nick Nayak, the DHS chief procurement officer, ``Mr. 
Smith led a new way of doing business where agencies provided a letter 
detailing their financial and policy commitment to initiative to obtain 
the business pricing for the government.'' Mr. Smith's collaborative 
approach has been so successful that the White House has asked him to 
introduce his methodology to other larger agencies.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in honoring Mr. Smith for his 
excellent work. I am also proud to recognize him as a Virginian, a 
Marine Corps veteran, and someone who has dedicated the past 28 years 
to public service.

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