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Ten years later, agencies still making gains on category management

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6 months ago

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What: Federal agencies move to best-in-class contracting and category management
When: “Transforming the Marketplace” memo published by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in December 2014
Why it matters: OFPP’s push toward category management turned out not to be just an acquisition policy fad, but one that continues to influence agency procurement decisions to this day. Governmentwide, agencies avoided $16.7 billion in costs through category management in fiscal 2024, nearly 29% above their goal for the year.
To celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2025, we’re spotlighting 25 pivotal moments that reshaped the way the government operates. Visit our anniversary page each week as we look back on these defining moments.

When the government first started its modern journey toward category management almost exactly a decade ago, the goal was relatively easy to describe, if hard to achieve: Reduce the amount of complexity in the federal procurement system.

And while no one would say government purchasing has exactly become simple in the intervening 10 years, category management and best-in-class contracting have done their share of work toward making things better.

As of December 2024, the Office of Management and Budget has now designated 40 separate large acquisition vehicles as best-in-class — representing products and services ranging from rental cars to hearing aids to identity protection services. In some cases, like federal employee air travel, OMB now requires agencies to use the government’s designated best-in-class contract for all of their purchasing in a particular category.

The increase in the value of best-in-class contracts over the past four years. Source: Governmentwide Category Management Dashboard via General Services Administration

That’s a far cry from where things stood in 2014, when it was more of a norm for multiple federal agencies to have similar contracts for identical purchases, sometimes from the same vendor — and sometimes without realizing it.

“The first problem is that there is very little sharing of information and best practices among federal acquisition units,” Anne Rung, the then-administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy told Federal News Network in December 2014, when OFPP first issued the “Transforming the Marketplace” memo that launched the category management initiative. “So for example, there’s no single place a contracting officer can go to find information about existing government wide contracts. Everyone is acting independently, without a lot of transparency, which leads to a lot of duplication. And our second challenge is that our workforce are required to be jacks of all trades. So they are required to buy, for example, furniture on one day and complex IT systems another day. And that proves particularly challenging for them and for industry.”

Principles persist across three presidencies

In the years since, every president has made category management a component of the President’s Management Agenda, and the prioritization and goal-setting that goes along with that designation has paid off.

By the end of fiscal 2024, $384 billion of the government’s contract obligations — or 78.5% of its total obligations — were meeting the Office of Management and Budget’s criteria for “spend under management,” metrics that show whether agencies are using agency-specific, multi-agency or governmentwide purchasing strategies. That figure has risen substantially since 2020, when $225 billion, or 56.4% of spending was characterized as “under management.”

Source: Governmentwide Category Management Dashboard via General Services Administration

The highest objective, or “tier,” is to funnel spending toward best-in-class contracts, and for 2024, $66 billion, or 13.6% of total contract spending, fell into the best-in-class spending tier. That was the first year since 2020 when the government met the BIC spending targets OMB set for the year.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean every agency thinks it’s cracked the code on category management. Governmentwide, 13.6% of contract obligations are now going toward best-in-class contracts, but those proportions vary widely from agency to agency.

At the Small Business Administration, BICs account for 45.6% of the agency’s contract spending; at the other end of the spectrum is the Department of Energy, which uses BIC vehicles for just 1% of its obligations. And the preponderance of agencies lie between those two extremes, such as the State Department, which logged 15.5% of its spending toward BICs and 71.9% “under management” of some kind in 2024.

“Most agencies are trying to buy smarter these days and use best-in-class vehicles that are established out there. We’re certainly doing that,” Mike Derrios, the deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and senior procurement executive at the State Department, told Federal News Network in a recent interview. “But the missing ingredient for us, really, and for any agency, is aggregating the demand signal. So how can you look internally at the requirements and identify those opportunities before you go to the best-in-class vehicles? That’s really where we get the best bang for the buck.”

Cost avoidance from category management

But agencies have already shown significant progress toward avoiding contract costs. In 2020, the government logged $13.2 billion in cost avoidances related to category management; that figure had risen to $16.9 billion in 2024.

And at some agencies, best-in-class contracting is still growing by significant percentages, according to dashboard analyses of the Federal Procurement Data System maintained by the General Services Administration. For example, year-over-year, the Social Security Administration increased its use of BICs by 16% in 2024; the Office of Personnel Management saw a nearly 21% boost.

And to a large extent, those increases have been prompted by greater specialization within the government’s acquisition workforce — a move away from the “jack of all trades” approach that was more dominant a decade ago.

“We’re organizing in ways where, for example, we’ll have a group that is focused on all things IT — not just typical IT products and services, but also AI, which is a huge thing these days,” Derrios said. “So we’re trying to build reps within those organizations to be the subject matter experts. We want them to really understand the market, really understand how it works, how fast technology is changing. That way, when they’re working with the customers on developing a strategic sourcing or category management-based approach, it’s not just, ‘Hey, can we aggregate several requirements together and go to industry with a larger buying power in mind?’ It’s also, ‘What do we know about the market? Are we smart enough to really think about how industry will respond to this particular RFP? And have we structured it in a way where it’s easily digestible for them?’”

The post Ten years later, agencies still making gains on category management first appeared on Federal News Network.

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Politics

Black Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle

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22 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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Screencap of YouTube video.

A Black Lives Matter activist in Boston named Monica Cannon-Grant pleaded guilty to federal charges this week, admitting that she scammed donors and used their money to fund her own lavish lifestyle.

Cannon-Grant was previously held up as an admired figure. The city of Boston named her the Bostonian of the year at one point for her ‘social justice activism’ and she was even recognized by the Boston Celtics basketball team for her efforts.

She is now facing a minimum of two years in prison.

The New York Post reports:

BLM-linked activist admits conning donors to fund her lavish lifestyle

A once-celebrated Boston social activist has pleaded guilty to defrauding donors — including Black Lives Matter — out of thousands of dollars that she used as a personal piggy bank.

Monica Cannon-Grant, 44, pleaded guilty Monday to 18 counts of fraud-related crimes that she committed with her late husband while operating their Violence in Boston (VIB) activists group, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.

The activist scammed money — including $3,000 from a BLM group — while claiming it was to help feed children and run protests like one in 2020 over the murder of George Floyd and police violence.

Cannon-Grant also conned her way into getting $100,000 in federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits — which she used to pay off her personal auto loan and car insurance policy.

But she has now confessed to transferring funds to personal bank accounts to pay for rent, shopping sprees, delivery meals, visits to a nail salon — and even a summer vacation to Maryland.

Just amazing.

Here’s a local video report:

She should pay back every penny.

The post Black Lives Matter Activist in Boston Pleads Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges – Scammed Donors to Fund Her Lifestyle appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Keith Olbermann Backpedals Furiously With Apology for Threatening CNN’s Scott Jennings – Jennings Responds (VIDEO)

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22 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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As the Gateway Pundit reported yesterday, former MSNBC host and generally unhinged leftist Keith Olbermann, appeared to threaten CNN’s conservative pundit Scott Jennings on Twitter saying, ‘You’re next motherf**ker.’

Well, Olbermann may have gotten a phone call or a visit from the FBI because today he walked back those comments with a full-throated apology.

RedState has an update:

To quickly recap, Scott Jennings, a Salem Media Network radio host and conservative CNN political commentator, reacted to breaking news on Monday that Kimmel had been reinstated by tweeting, “So basically his employer suspended him for being an insensitive pr**k, and we don’t live in an authoritarian regime? Got it.”

This enraged Olbermann, who proceeded to tweet what many, including Jennings, perceived to be a threat. “You’re next, motherf**ker. But keep mugging to the camera.” Jennings tagged Patel and included a screengrab of the tweets in response.

Though the FBI hasn’t commented as to whether an investigation was launched, Olbermann ostensibly appears to have thought twice about what he tweeted and deleted, apologizing profusely in tweets posted on Tuesday and claiming what he wrote was “misinterpreted”:

See Olbermann’s tweet below:

Scott Jennings, always a class act, offered this hilarious response:

Keith Olbermann really needs help. The guy is just so out of control.

The post Keith Olbermann Backpedals Furiously With Apology for Threatening CNN’s Scott Jennings – Jennings Responds (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Where is Lance Twiggs? Kirk Assassin’s Transgender Lover Has Vanished

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22 hours ago

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September 24, 2025

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Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson and roommate Lance Twiggs

Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson lived with his transgender partner – a male-to-female trans named Lance “Luna” Twiggs.

The FBI used Robinson’s texts with his transgender partner to solidify that Robinson was the assassin. Lance Twiggs has not been charged with any crime; however, federal authorities are still investigating.

Last week, Utah authorities released the text exchange between Tyler Robinson and his transgender lover, Lance Twiggs, sent shortly after Kirk’s assassination.

Utah County District Attorney Jeff Gray announced seven charges against Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson. They will also be seeking the death penalty.

Robinson was charged with:

– Count 1: Aggravated murder (capital offense)
– Count 2: Felony reckless discharge of a firearm causing bodily injury
– Count 3: Felony obstruction of justice for hiding the firearm
– Count 4: Felony obstruction of justice for discarding the clothing he wore during the shooting
– Count 5: Witness tampering for asking roommate to delete incriminating messages
– Count 6: Witness temperating for demanding trans roommate stay silent, and not speak to police
– Count 7: Commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child

Jeff Gray released the chilling texts between Tyler Robinson and his “love” Lance Twiggs.

Read the text exchange here:

Tyler Robinson texts with transgender lover Lance Twiggs / 1
Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson texts with transgender lover Lance Twiggs / 2

Lance Twiggs was reportedly cooperating with the FBI, however, according to the Daily Mail he has seemingly vanished.

“If [Lance Twiggs] ever comes back, it will be in a body bag,” a neighbor said to the Daily Mail. “That’s not a threat – I’m just saying that there are so many people who want a piece of him he’d be mad to show his face in public again. This was a generational event.”

The Daily Mail reported:

The Trans boyfriend of Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin has fled their former lovenest – and locals tell the Daily Mail they never want to see him again.

Lance Twiggs, 22, was led away for questioning when police swooped on the smart three-bed condo he shared with accused gunman Tyler Robinson, 22.

Shaken neighbors say the part time plumber has not been back to the $320,000 property in St. George, Utah – one declaring: ‘Good riddance. I never want to see either of them again.’

His beaten-up Infinity compact is still parked in his space with his work gear tossed across the back seat and a sandwich wrapper and a drink on the front passenger seat.

Upstairs lights have been left on for more than a week and notes and Amazon packages are piling up outside the home owned by Twiggs’s devout Mormon family.

The post Where is Lance Twiggs? Kirk Assassin’s Transgender Lover Has Vanished appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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