Seeing Signs of Federal Business

Here's today's federal procurement snapshot, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Two years ago, Tapco, a family business in Elm Grove, Wis., didn't have any federal contracts. The state and local market had a far bigger demand for the company's products -- street signs and traffic signals. Now, with a little help from an outfit called the Wisconsin Procurement Institute, the firm does more than $2 million in business with the Defense and Homeland Security departments and the National Park Service. That includes making traffic signs in English and Arabic for use at military checkpoints in Iraq.