Gov. Wes Moore's office extends contract with consultants tracking, analyzing Trump White House
Published in Political News
Gov. Wes Moore’s office has extended an agreement to employ outside consultants to help track the influx of executive orders and other policy changes coming down from President Donald Trump’s White House.
The contract — originally set to end this month but now extended until March 1 — will allow the consulting firm Accenture to monitor, analyze and provide daily updates to Moore’s team about how Trump’s actions impact Maryland, according to a copy of the agreement signed four days after the inauguration last week.
“The work [produced by the contract] is of extreme importance to the Moore-Miller administration,” the document states in a section justifying a $50,000 addition to the original $190,000 two-month agreement.
The ongoing work from Accenture will include tracking and research, regular communication with the governor’s staff, direct support for state agency leaders and a final report with “action plans,” according to the contract.
“A key outcome of this work will be for the governor’s office to stay up to date on the full universe of relevant federal developments and actions being taken on any given day in order to be able to prioritize responses accordingly,” it states.
Trump unleashed a barrage of executive actions after returning to power, some of which could have an outsized impact on Maryland.
His moves to control and ultimately slim down the size of the federal workforce immediately raised alarms in a state that relies heavily on those jobs. Other steps to roll back federal support in areas like wind energy, electric vehicles and health care could have quick or long-term effects. Meanwhile, funding for Moore’s top priorities, like the Red Line light rail project in Baltimore, meanwhile, are facing much higher odds of becoming reality.
Moore spokesman Carter Elliott IV said Accenture has worked already to analyze the impacts of the Trump administration’s directives, including on federal funding, and to make recommendations. The extension was made to “ensure that this important work is completed thoroughly and smoothly transitioned to our agency leaders,” he said.
The Democratic governor has vowed to both work with and push back against the Republican president when necessary.
Earlier this month, Moore said he’s “not the leader of the resistance” and will work with anyone he can to make progress for the state. He’s also described the new administration as a “storm” that “threatens to disrupt Maryland’s economy,” as well as parts of Trump’s inauguration speech as “troubling” and “purely un-American.”
In preparing for that “storm,” Moore said his team has been working since last February to plan for any changes at the federal level. The contract his office signed in November with Accenture sought to augment that work by tapping one of the world’s largest consulting and technology firms to provide an “independent, structured, and research-based approach.”
This includes evaluating Trump’s appointments and executive actions, as well as the legislative priorities of the new Republican-controlled Congress.
Moving from the planning stages to the “action plan implementation,” the extended contract ensures that the consultants can “lower the administrative burden” on state officials as Trump now controls the full force of the federal government, according to the contract. A final report will include analyses of individual federal agencies, a summary of “action plans” produced by state agencies and recommendations for how the state agencies can coordinate.
Like the original agreement, it was also developed outside of the state’s regular procurement process, which typically involves the governor and two other members of the Board of Public Works publicly vetting and voting on contracts about every two weeks.
It was procured instead as an “intergovernmental cooperation agreement,” which allows the state to join another state or local government’s existing contract. In this case, Maryland joined an agreement that the University of Virginia made with Accenture in 2020 to provide general support services for the university’s departments.
The amended contract stated the different type of process was justified again because of the “time-sensitive” nature of the services.
“Hiring outside consultant help is a standard part of any organization, and at a time of greater potential risk in regards to Maryland’s reliance on the federal government it is imperative that the state enlists outside expertise to prepare for any challenges we may face,” Elliott said.
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