Ken,
I agree it's not always possible to land time, labor and material, I'd go as far to agree it's rare but I disagree on the 'prudent' part because as a contractor it's prudent to have them, if you can, since your profit is guranteed as opposed to overrunning your cost in staffing and schedule in FP Contracts. You have to consider why it's in the Gov. best interest to award Fixed Price Contracts. It's because it minimizes their risk and almost automatically increases yours.

Having said that, it's also very common that the Simple Procurement Purchase or Solicitation will identify the Contract as FP leaving you no choice as a Contractor. It's a Customer driven issue BUT if you have the option somehow, then what you talk about is worth analyzing furthermore.

I only wanted to highlight the pros and cons for each type of Contract to the Gov. and the Contractor. I developed in the past Procurement Software for few Gov. agencies and worked closely with a lot of Contract Officers and that is driving where I am coming from to a large extent.

Let me know what you think. My 2nd 2 cents<g>.