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100			_aMerrick, Weston, Bernardy, Pete and Carter, Patrick _953564
245			_aInvisible and indispensable: Using the lowly request for proposals to advance public value: Submission to par for practically speaking
260			_aPublic Administration Review
300			_a84(2), Mar-Apr, 2024: p.206-212
520			_aRequests for Proposals (RFP) may be the pinnacle of bureaucratic mundanity. Yet, hidden within this apparent monotony are powerful tools to advance public values. Federal, state, and local government grants deploy staggering sums, reaching into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually. With these distributions, the executive branch is often delegated substantial discretion. These are choices of consequence, but little support exists for public managers tasked with this work. This article examines the potential to improve administrative decision-making by enhancing our understanding of how discretion is authorized and applied regarding RFPs. Drawing from professional experience, we create a framework to identify dimensions of discretion in these proposals and apply it to a Minnesota case. We end with a call for academics and practitioners to better partner on empirical inquiry that improves RFP administration; in doing so, there is immense potential to help civil servants to improve outcomes for the public.- Reproduced https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/puar.13807
773			_aPublic Administration Review
906			_aPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
942			_cAR