While a considerable number of Executive Orders (EOs) have been issued this year, two in particular could have a significant impact on government contracting.
- EO 14240 – Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement
- EO 14275 – Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement
The Consolidating Procurement EO directs the General Services Administration (GSA) to take over procurement responsibilities from federal agencies for all domestic common goods and services.
The EO on Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement calls for a major rewrite of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which governs federal buying.
Since the release of EO 14240 and 14275, the government contracting community has been speculating on the potential implementation and impact of these directives. Last week, GSA held a webinar to shed some light on the procurement consolidation and FAR overhaul initiatives spurred by EOs 14240 and 14275.
If you were not one of the 5,800 in attendance, below are a few highlights from the webinar along with a link to download the slide presentation.
Highlights from GSA’s Industry Webinar on Contract Consolidation & the FAR Overhaul
EO 14240 Consolidating Procurement
GSA is no stranger to contract consolidation. In 2020, the agency merged 24 individual GSA Schedule Contracts into one Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Contract. Now, GSA is leading the effort to consolidate contracts across the entire federal government.
During the webinar, GSA discussed how EO 14240 expands the General Services Administration’s role in federal acquisition and calls for GSA to house the common goods and services needs of all federal agencies “under one roof.”
Below are a few notes from the Consolidating Procurement portion of the webinar:
- GSA says this latest consolidation effort means an “expanding industrial base” and a “shift in agency resources towards supporting consolidated procurement efforts.”
- GSA plans to take over management of GWACS currently managed by NASA and NIH, and align them with the rest of GSA’s offerings.
- According to Jeff Koses, the RFP for SEWP VI will not be cancelled; it would be inefficient to cancel the current solicitation and start over.
- While plans are still in the works, GSA explained there won’t be a single solution path to consolidating procurement. Rather GSA will likely employ a combination of the following:
- Shared Services, such as Federal Fleet management
- Global Supply (GSA management of common product acquisitions)
- Contract vehicles such as the Federal Supply Schedule (GSA & VA Schedules), GWACs, and OASIS+
- Increased Assisted Acquisitions
- Some Transition of Acquisition Related Functions to GSA
EO 14275 FAR Overhaul
EO 14275 notes that “the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) was implemented to establish uniform procedures for acquisitions across executive departments and agencies,” but has evolved “into an excessive and overcomplicated regulatory framework and resulting in an onerous bureaucracy.”
With that said, the EO calls for:
- Streamlining the FAR to only include “provisions that are required by statute or that are otherwise necessary to support simplicity and usability, strengthen the efficacy of the procurement system, or protect economic or national security interests.”
- Aligning agency supplements, like the General Services Administration Acquisition Regulation (GSAR), to the reformed FAR language
- Sunsetting some FAR provisions not required by statute
During the webinar, GSA explained:
- The FAR is being rewritten, part by part, to streamline the language and remove most non-statutory requirements.
- FAR changes will reflect a shift in focus to:
- Meeting agency needs
- Timing
- Buying commercial
- Awarding contracts to contractors who demonstrate superior ability to perform
- Some non-statutory requirements will be moved to buying guides.
- Agency supplements will be rewritten in accordance with FAR changes. GSA expects to be one of the first agencies to do this with the GSAR.
- Changes are being implemented now through a series of deviations, with the formal rulemaking process to follow.
- You can review FAR changes as they are released in the FAR Overhaul section of Acquisition.gov here.
- The Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) and Defense Acquisition University (DAU) are working to make sure the federal acquisition workforce has resources and training available. This will include the following non-regulatory resources:
- Practitioner albums to explain changes and implementation (Available for FAR Part 10)
- FAR Companion Guide (pending)
- Category Buying Guides (pending)
- GSA encourages public comments. The FAR Council will review, but will not formally respond to comments.
GSA’s Industry Webinar Slides
While GSA will not release a recording of the presentation, you can download the slides under the RFO section of GSA’s Acquisition Policy Library and Resources Page here.
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