Circular A-76. It built on previous policies stating that the federal government “will not start or carry on any commercial activity to provide a service or product for its own use if such service or product can be procured from private enterprise.”4 The message was: if someone outside government can do your job, and especially if they can do it cheaper, we’re giving it to them. The memo is important because it formalized the distinction between functions that are “commercial” and those that are “inherently governmental,” a difference whose meaning has been debated ever since.
