John M. Tenaglia, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is currently the Princi- pal Director for Pricing, Contracting, and Acquisition Policy, Office of the Secretary of War. He is responsible for pricing and contracting policy matters that relate to $470 billion-plus in annual contract obli- gations. Prior to his current assignment, Tenaglia served as Head of the Contracting Activity for the Defense Health Agency. He was interviewed by Defense Acquisition magazine’s managing editor, Benjamin Tyree, on Feb. 20, 2026. Q What is your message to the workforce on how to be creative and flexible in planning and awarding a solicitation under the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul [RFO]? A. The RFO is expected to result in reduced burden on our workforce and reduced burden on industry. So, as DoW acquisition teams are forming their solicitations under the new rule set that we are in the process of issuing now, there are opportunities for all acquisition officials—con - tracting officers, program managers, and other functional disciplines supporting department solicitations alike—to embrace the additional discretion to formulate the busi- ness deal that makes the most sense for their requirement. We started this initiative by reducing the internal burden of compliance requirements embedded in the regulations but not mandated by statutory requirements. In revisit- ing those requirements, we’ve come to realize that, be- cause they’re not based in any statutory mandate, we can offer more discretion for our workforce to employ the full range of techniques and approaches to fulfill our mission requirements. Q How do you see the Services streamlining their sup- plements and policies on the RFO and ensuring that contract specialists and officers are able to be innovative and creative in the new Federal Acquisition Regulation [FAR] model text? A. We do operate in a highly regulated business. And over the years, the federal acquisition system has accumulated a tremendous number of procedural requirements at all levels, including at the FAR level, the Defense FAR Supple- ment [DFARS], and then special additional supplements in each component of the military departments. We have been directed by the President through executive order to reduce the content of these regulations, and that includes the supplements. And so, the same philosophy applies to the component supplements—to take a complete relook at all those issuances and ask the critical questions, “Do we really need that? Is it unnecessarily constraining our
Tenaglia addresses the Senior Acquisition Management Course (ACQ 404) May 12, 2025, at DAU (now the Warfighting Acquisition University). Source: Photo by Michael Bubar-Krukowski This image was cropped to show detail and edited using multiple filters plus dodging and burning techniques.
6 DEFENSE ACQUISITION MAGAZINE | MARCH – APRIL 2026
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