It is no surprise that the government can be a significant client for businesses. The federal government can be one of the largest continuous clients that a business can receive. Within the year 2018, the federal government spent over $550 billion through contract vehicles. So why wouldn’t you want to sell your products and services to the government?

Today’s the day! By now, government contractors have probably experienced a flurry of information regarding GSA’s consolidation of the Multiple Award Schedule. From deadlines to new SINs and new solicitations, there’s certainly no shortage of Consolidation notices floating around for GSA contractors. Winvale is here with your weekly blog post to keep you up to date with the latest in MAS Consolidation and everything you need to know about how this process will affect your company’s GSA business. GSA’s new consolidated MAS solicitation was released this morning on FedBizOpps and their own eOffer/eMod site. The physical solicitation has been a long time coming and we have been counting down the hours until its release. Well, it’s finally here and there are some BIG changes.

On August 13, 2019, a new interim rule instituted by GSA went into law that will have a direct effect on many GSA Contact Schedule holders. The new law will implement section 889 (a)(1)(A) of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019. The specific wording of the law, via Acquisition.gov, states:

The Dun & Bradstreet D-U-N-S number has long been the GSA’s official Unique Entity Identifier, but it is being replaced in December 2020. In its place will be a new Unique Entity ID, generated in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov). This new, as yet unnamed Unique Entity Identifier will be twelve characters long. The definition of uniqueness will not be changing. Uniqueness will continue to be based on an entity being a separate legal entity and/or associated with a separate physical address.

The MAS Consolidation is one of the four cornerstone Initiatives of GSA’s Federal Market Place strategy. The main goal is to modernize and simplify the buying and selling experience for customers, contractors, and acquisition professionals. The consolidation will offer a simplified format with a single consolidated Multiple Award Schedule template containing additional solicitation documents to complete new offers which will include new large categories and sub-categories, as well as new streamlined conditions for new offerors.  

In April 2019, the Small Business Administration (SBA) released a plan to enact revised size standards for small businesses. According to the SBA, a size standard is usually defined by the number of employees or average annual receipts and represents the largest size that a business, including subsidiaries and affiliates, may be to remain classified as a small business for SBA and federal contract programs. In 2010, the United States Congress passed the Small Business Jobs Act (Jobs Act) which requires the SBA to review all size standards every five years. Under the Jobs Act, the SBA is also required to adjust to reflect market conditions as needed, including inflation.