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GSA to Consolidate Multiple Award SchedulesThe General Services Administration (GSA) recently announced that it “will modernize federal acquisition by consolidating the agency’s 24 Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) into one single schedule for products and services.” According to a press release issued by the GSA, “[t]he MAS transformation is part of GSA’s Federal Marketplace strategy to make the government buying and selling experience easy, efficient and modern,” and “[i]t supports GSA’s strategic goal to establish the agency as the premier provider of efficient and effective acquisition solutions across the government.”

Under MAS (also commonly referred to as Federal Supply Schedules and the GSA Schedules), the GSA “establishes long-term, governmentwide contracts with commercial firms offering more than 10 million commercial supplies and services that federal, state, and local agencies order directly from GSA Schedule contractors, or through the GSA Advantage!® online shopping and ordering system.”

According to the GSA, approximately $31 billion dollars “is spent through MAS each year.”

The GSA’s transition to a consolidated schedule reportedly will take place over the course of Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020.

If you have any questions about how the GSA’s planned transition in this regard may impact your company, please do not hesitate to contact Aron Beezley.

New SAM Registration Rules Effective Oct. 26, 2018The Department of Defense, General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration recently issued a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to “update the instructions for registration” in the System for Award Management (SAM) and “clarify the timing of registration” in SAM. More specifically, the final rule, which corrects “inconsistencies in current FAR language,” “requires all offerors (except as provided at FAR 4.1102) to be registered in SAM at the time of submission of an offer or quotation, consistent with the requirements of FAR clause 52.204-8.”

The final rule has an effective date of October 26, 2018.

Please do not hesitate to contact Aron Beezley if you have any questions about the final rule or any other related issues.

While many federal contractors operate on a fiscal year that coincides with the calendar year, the federal government’s fiscal year is the 12-month period beginning on October 1 and ending on September 30 of the following year. Understanding the federal government’s fiscal year—and, in particular, the effects of the government’s fiscal year cycle on its spending and planning tendencies—is essential for all federal contractors.

Spending

A 2010 study by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government found that, by “pooling data from 2004 through 2009,” one can see “a clear spike in spending at the end of the [government’s fiscal] year with 16.5 percent of all spending occurring in the last month of the [government’s fiscal] year and 8.7 percent occurring in the last week [of the government’s fiscal] year.” Understanding this spending pattern is critical for federal contractors, as it allows them to predict, with some degree of certainty, when the federal government will award certain contracts on which they—or their competitors—have bid.

Further, understanding this pattern of spending helps federal contractors to be better prepared in the event of a bid protest—whether by the contractor itself, or by a competitor challenging an award to the contractor. In this regard, the following chart from a recent report by RAND Corporation shows that the number of bid protest filings at the Government Accountability Office peaks in October as a result of increased government spending at the end of the government’s fiscal year:

Important Fiscal Year-End (and Beginning) Considerations for Government Contractors

Planning

In addition to having a better understanding of the federal government’s spending tendencies and the consequences thereof, understanding the government’s fiscal year cycle can give federal contractors an advantage on the planning front. Specifically, understanding that most federal agencies begin significant acquisition planning early in the fiscal year allows contractors to be proactive—rather than reactive—when it comes to pursuing contracting opportunities (e.g., identifying upcoming solicitations, identifying potential teaming partners, preparing proposals, etc.). Additionally, understanding that most federal agencies begin significant acquisition planning early in the fiscal year can also allow contractors to be proactive in terms of shaping the government’s requirements (e.g., educating the government about specific goods/services, participating in market research, responding to government requests for information, providing input on procurement planning, etc.). Indeed, proactive and smart measures by federal contractors at the beginning of the government’s fiscal year can, and often do, mean the difference between winning and losing a contract at the end of the government’s fiscal year.

If you have any questions about the topics discussed in this article or about any related issues, please do not hesitate to contact Aron Beezley.