This week, Congress passed its $874.2 billion defense policy bill, better known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This highly anticipated bill sets the funding and policy agenda for the Department of Defense (DoD) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. The DoD is currently operating under a stopgap funding bill, barring the agency from starting most new initiatives or moving forward with many acquisitions, so once signed by President Biden, this bill will enact a series of significant changes within the DoD.

It’s important for new and prospective GSA Schedule contract holders to keep in mind a GSA Schedule award is just the beginning of your contract’s life cycle. GSA Schedule contracts are broken out in four 5-year option periods, meaning your GSA Schedule can last for up to 20 years. And while some aspects of your GSA Schedule may not change drastically, a large portion of your offerings will likely look very different by the end of your contract. To help facilitate these changes to your GSA Schedule as easy as possible, GSA allows contractors to make modifications to their Schedule.

Managing catalog and contract data for a GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract isn’t easy, but GSA aims to simplify these processes for contract holders through the new FAS Catalog Platform (FCP). Since GSA is unrolling FCP slowly, currently only selected contractors are eligible to transition from using the Schedule Input Program (SIP), the existing program for catalog management, to using FCP.

Recently, the Department of Defense (DoD) proposed to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to permanently authorize and modify the DoD’s Mentor Protégé Program. This program, sometimes referred to as the MPP, helps small businesses get their foot in the door and expand their experience in the defense industrial base.

Veteran-owned businesses (especially small businesses) are often met with obstacles when entering the federal marketplace, which can make the process lengthy and more difficult. The government tries to mitigate this with providing more resources and opportunities for disadvantaged small businesses. Small businesses have access to unique opportunities within the federal government, including specialized programs and set-aside contracts. One socio-economic group the Small Business Administration (SBA) recognizes for set-asides and additional resources is Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDBVOSBs). In this blog, we’ll discuss what SDVOSBs are, how to certify, and what the federal contracting landscape looks like.

If you have a government contract such as the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), or are thinking about getting one, good cyber hygiene is key. Of course, every company wants to avoid cyber attacks and hacking, but it’s important when you are selling to the federal government to have certain practices in place to proactively safeguard your network.