Government Contracting Blog

Pricing is a key component of every GSA Schedule contract. GSA Schedule contracts are a long-term partnership between the federal government and commercial companies and are one of the most widely used government contract vehicles. The Federal Supply Service, a division of the General Services Administration (GSA), manages this government-wide contracting vehicle, which has been newly branded as the Multiple Award Schedule. The Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) was established under FAR Subpart 8.4 and serves to offer Federal agencies “a simplified process for obtaining commercial supplies and services at prices associated with volume buying.” My role as a GSA consultant requires that I navigate my clients through the construction of an offer that is strategic, compliant, and emphasizes pricing. Here are 5 GSA pricing rules you need to know:

You’re considering government contracting and it seems like the deeper you dive into the subject the longer the list of acronyms and abbreviations you come across becomes. No worries! Below is a guide to the government contracting vehicles that you will come across in your research.

The General Services Administration (GSA) was established in July 1949 by President Harry Truman to streamline the administrative work of the federal government. Today GSA provides centralized procurement for the federal government by managing the Federal Supply Schedules program, known more commonly as GSA Schedules. GSA Schedules is a purchasing vehicle that offers more than 12 million commercial supplies and services and is open for use to any federal agency within the Executive Branch. Currently there are 24 Schedules offering commercial goods and services which are managed directly by GSA. There are also another eight federal supply schedules managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

There are numerous solicitations available under the General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple-Award Schedules (MAS) Program, each representing a different industry. GSA’s IT Schedule 70 includes Information Technology products and services that have been negotiated and awarded under a GSA schedule contract. Under the GSA MAS Program, the Federal government -- and in some cases, State and Local government -- entities can meet virtually every single purchasing need by buying products and services directly from GSA-approved vendors at pre-negotiated prices. GSA contracts offer government customers direct delivery of high-quality commercial supplies and services at discount pricing.

The General Services Administration (GSA) manages the federal acquisition and award processes using 10 websites. In August 2017, beta.SAM.gov went live and will eventually serve as a replacement for the 10 legacy acquisition websites that GSA maintains. Christy Hermansen, the Integrated Award Environment (IAE) Design Lead, says “We will be continually adding functionality to the site over time, making improvements based on feedback we receive from users. We are not shutting down any of our 10 legacy applications yet. These will be turned off one at a time, once all of the features have been transitioned and we’ve validated that that functionality is ready to be the authoritative system.”

In 2017, U.S. Senators Mac Thornberry (R-TX) and Adam Smith (D-WA) proposed a bill known as the Saving Federal Dollars Through Better Use of Government Purchase and Travel Cards Act of 2017 that concentrated on reducing waste, fraud, and abuse of Government spending on travel and when using purchase cards. This bill passed through the House and Senate when it was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (or NDAA 2018). The Saving Federal Dollars Through Better Use of Government Purchase and Travel Cards Act of 2017 addressed three key issues with Government spends: (1) improper payments, (2) questionable transactions, and (3) strategic sourcing. Our focus today will be strategic sourcing.