Under the General Service Administration (GSA), there are several ways of contracting that can help your business win awards from the government. Some come in the form of competitive awards such as small business set asides and Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs). While you are in an elite group of contractors in the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) program, you still have to compete with other contractors to get awards from both federal and state and local governments. However, there is the rare exception when competition is removed from the equation. Occasionally, there’s an instance where only one contractor can fulfill a government agency’s needs. These are called sole source contracts.

After the Biden Administration passed a sweeping domestic funding plan which includes $1 trillion dollars in anticipated infrastructure spending, you may be wondering how to infiltrate the public sector and gain access to the vast amount of government contract opportunities. While selling to the government may seem like a difficult endeavor, understanding the many nuances of the government marketplace will certainly help you expand your company’s public sales efforts. In this blog, we’ll cover five steps to how to sell to the government including how you can get on a streamlined contract vehicle like the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS).

CMMC 2.0 is here—the Department of Defense (DoD) announced the revamped version of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) on November 4, 2021. CMMC, a cybersecurity compliance program for defense contractors, is intended to verify that contractors are taking the appropriate cybersecurity practices and measures. Contractors in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) have been following CMMC closely as it’s slowly being phased into notices, requirements, and solicitations.

On August 10, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, sending it to the House of Representatives for consideration. It is welcome news that an infrastructure bill is being discussed after years of Congressional inaction, but simply securing funding will not guarantee successful projects. An unprecedented combination of economic, social, and climate challenges will loom over the construction sector for years, making effective project management systems more necessary than ever. Before the first projects begin, government agencies and contractors alike should examine and take the necessary steps to improve their own project management infrastructure.

This blog was last updated on November 4, 2021. The White House COVID-19 Response Team recently announced that millions of federal contractors and subcontractors must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 4, 2022, unless they are granted a legal exemption. This order mandates both in-person and remote federal contractors, as well as employees who are working under a covered contract to get vaccinated. So, which contracts are considered “covered” under this order and what other COVID-19 protocols will contractors have to follow to remain compliant? Let’s break down the order:

On August 31, 2021, GSA proposed a rule to help GSA Schedule contractors perform on Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) orders beyond their contract term. This proposed rule would amend the GSA Acquisition Regulation (GSAR) to include an internal GSA policy of extending FSS orders for 5 years beyond the terms of an FSS contract. As a reminder, the GSA Schedule is also referred to as the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) and the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), so this order directly affects GSA contractors.