Politicians, the media, and citizens alike argue incessantly about government spending. How much money should the government spend? What should the government spend it on? Where should the government get the money it spends? Questions like these pervade American politics.

Given the consistently high salience of government spending as a public policy issue, it is surprising that few people pay much attention to government purchasing. To be sure, government purchasing sometimes shows up on the public agenda. For example, during the 1980s it was widely reported that the Pentagon spent $436 on a hammer and $7,600 on a coffee pot. Similarly, in the 1990s a spate of newspaper stories reported that Defense Department personnel used federal government credit cards to pay for prostitutes, lap dances at “gentleman's” clubs, and other unauthorized goods and services. And since President George W. Bush sent troops to Iraq, the media have scrutinized the way the federal government has awarded reconstruction contracts. But these stories are exceptions to a general tendency. For the most part, the public, the media, and political leaders overlook government purchasing.

Perhaps this is a mistake. Government purchasing is big business. The federal government spends over $230 billion per year on procurement. More than 85,000 subnational governments in the United States (50 states and tens of thousands of local governments) spend an additional $1.1 trillion to $1.35 trillion. These amounts are not likely to shrink in the near future.