GSA to Significantly Expand Federal Procurement Under New EO

President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) last week that will drastically expand federal procurement within the General Services Administration (GSA). The EO directs the contracting work of most common goods and services including Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) to GSA. GSA officials anticipate this will increase GSA sales to $400 billion, effectively “quadrupling” its size. This is huge news for contractors, especially those within the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program. Here’s what you need to know about this EO:

Consolidating Procurement Under GSA

Why the switch to GSA? In an effort to eliminate waste, inefficiencies, and redundancy, the Trump Administration wants to consolidate federal procurement as much as possible under GSA. As many of you may already be familiar with, GSA spearheads the MAS Program, along with other Best In Class (BIC) contracting vehicles such as certain IT GWACs or Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contracts (IDIQs). In other words, GSA is already managing a large chunk of federal procurement. So they know what they’re doing.

With this EO, major contracts such as NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V and VI or the National Institute of Health’s Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners (CIOSP) 3 and 4 are likely to be transitioned over to GSA.

EO Directives

This Executive Order directs federal agencies to do the following:

• Agency heads must submit proposals to GSA for consolidating domestic procurement functions for common goods and services within GSA

• GSA and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will develop a comprehensive plan for consolidating common goods and services procurement across the government to eliminate waste and duplication

• Agencies will designate GSA as the executive agent for the administration of government-wide acquisition contracts

It’s estimated in this EO that there will be an average of a 10% reduction in spending through this consolidation and therefore $50 billion in savings. It also means a large increase in sales through the GSA MAS, which we’ll talk more about below.

What this EO Means for the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program

The EO talks about instances where products listed through GSA are priced significantly lower (sometimes 20-30%) than the open market or other methods of federal acquisition—this is made possible through the GSA MAS Program.

If you’re an MAS contractor or are planning to be one soon, then you’ll know that GSA pre-vets and establishes pre-negotiated “fair and reasonable” pricing with contractors before they’re awarded their GSA Schedule. This saves government buyers money and time and is one of the main reasons the MAS program is the world’s most popular contract vehicle.

This consolidation is about to make the program even more popular, as most common goods and services will now flow through the MAS program or GSA-led GWACs. This bodes very well for GSA Schedule contractors, and we anticipate it’ll bring in a significant amount of federal business. So, how do you capitalize on this opportunity? We’ll dive into that next.

Prepare Your GSA Schedule and Take Advantage of GSA’s Expansion

Now that we know this news—are you ready to take advantage of the influx in business? If you’re already a GSA Schedule contractor, we put together a list of ways you can prepare your contract below:

• Check your SAM.gov registration: check the annual renewal date of your registration and make sure you’re ready to go
• Ensure your GSA Schedule is up to date: make sure modifications for pricing, product/service changes, your POC, etc. are submitted and up to date. Modifications may take longer to complete, so we suggest you start now.
• Revamp marketing materials: reevaluate your GSA Schedule marketing materials and make sure they are realigned to the new administration’s mission and have updated information.
• Network: Some of these upcoming opportunities may be a bit beyond your scope or too large for one company to handle. Start fostering relationships with companies that can help you provide a total solution/form a Contractor Teaming Arrangement (CTA).

If you are looking to get a GSA Schedule, we put together a list of blogs to get you started:

• Getting a GSA Schedule: What You Need to Know Before You Start
• GSA Schedule Acquisition FAQs
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Preparing a GSA Schedule Proposal

Should you have any questions about getting a GSA Schedule or need help managing it, our team of experienced consultants are here to help.