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Draft EO would make GSA the center of most common buys

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6 months ago

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The White House wants to bring centralized procurement back to the government, returning agencies to  the pre-acquisition reform days of the 1990s for most common services and products.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order in the coming days that would put the General Services Administration in charge of buying all products and services that make up the 10 areas of category management.

These include everything from IT to medical drugs and devices to professional services to seven other categories as defined by the Category Management Leadership Council.

Additionally, GSA will take over management of governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) for IT services and products with an eye toward reducing duplicative vehicles.

“Consolidating domestic federal procurement in the General Services Administration — the agency designed to conduct procurement — will eliminate waste and duplication, while enabling agencies to focus on their core mission of delivering the best possible services for the American people,” the White House wrote in a draft executive order, which Federal News Network obtained. “It is time to return the General Services Administration to its original purpose, rather than continuing to have multiple agencies and agency subcomponents separately carry out these same functions in an uncoordinated and less economical fashion.”

Two emails to the White House seeking comment on these changes were not returned.

This is the first of what is expected to be two acquisition focused executive orders the president is expected to sign in the next few weeks. Multiple sources say the second order will focus on rewriting the Federal Acquisition Regulations.

The draft EO gives agencies 30 days to come up with a plan to submit to GSA to have them “conduct domestic procurement with respect to common goods and services for the agency, where permitted by law.”

GSA then has 90 days to submit a plan for how they will implement this initiative to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Category management categories and spend as of 2019. Source: Acquisition.gov

Before the acquisition reform efforts of the 1990s with the passage of the Federal Acquisition Streaming Act (FASA) and Federal Acquisition Reform Act (FARA), GSA was the mandatory, governmentwide source for the procurement of goods and services and the acquisition, management and disposal of real property under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949.

In many ways, the draft EO is bringing the government back to the statute that established GSA.

What does EO mean for NASA, NITAAC?

The biggest change in the draft EO, however, may be GSA taking over the IT GWACs. OMB has 14 days to issue a memo to initiate this change and 30 days give GSA the full authority.

Currently, GSA, NASA and the National Institutes of Health’s IT Acquisition and Assistance Center (NITAAC) run these governmentwide contracts.

Under the terms of the EO, GSA will decide whether NASA and NITAAC will continue to run SEWP and CIO-SP, CS and other programs.

“The [GSA] administrator, in consultation with the director of OMB, shall defer or decline the executive agent designation for governmentwide acquisition contracts for information technology when necessary to ensure continuity of service or as otherwise appropriate,” the draft EO states. “The administrator shall further, on an ongoing basis and consistent with applicable law, rationalize governmentwide indefinite delivery contract vehicles for information technology for agencies across the government, including as part of identifying and eliminating contract duplication, redundancy and other inefficiencies.”

This authority to approve GWACs currently resides in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, which serves as the designated approval authority.

This isn’t the first time OMB and GSA tried to reduce the number of GWACs and multiple award contracts. During the Obama administration, OFPP initiated a pre-approval process for any large multiple award IT contract with a ceiling of at least $250 million in 2011 and had plans to drop that ceiling requirement to $50 million.

This effort had minimal impact in reducing duplicative GWACs or multiple award contracts.

In 2006, former GSA Administrator Lurita Doan suggested taking over IT GWACs like NASA SEWP, but received pushback from the federal community. At that time, OFPP also initiated a data collection effort to see how many interagency and agency-specific multiple award contracts existed.

Another side effect of this EO is whether GSA continues its current set of GWACs, including Alliant 3, the ASEND cloud contract and whether the future of NASA SEWP VI and NITAAC’s CIO-SP4, which is now four years since the organization released is initial solicitation.

Acquisition experts say the draft EO elicits several questions that will need to be answered with the implementation guidance:

  • How will agencies pay for these services from GSA?
  • With GSA Federal Acquisition Service aiming to reduce its workforce by 50% or more, will acquisition workers from other agencies transfer to FAS to help run these procurements?
  • How will GSA ensure it doesn’t get complacent as the centralized procurement provider, which experts say was an issue in the 1980s?
  • How does this impact the Defense Department and the categories they manage as well as agencies with their property authorities like the departments of Interior, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs hospitals?

The post Draft EO would make GSA the center of most common buys first appeared on Federal News Network.

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Politics

President Trump Taps Dr. Ben Carson for New Role — A HUGE Win for America First Agenda

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19 hours ago

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September 25, 2025

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Dr. Ben Carson is the newest member of the Trump administration.

On Wednesday, former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, was sworn in as the national adviser for nutrition, health, and housing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins shared that Carson’s role will be to oversee Trump’s new Big Beautiful Bill law, which aims to ensure Americans’ quality of life, from nutrition to stable housing.

After being sworn in, Carson shared, “Today, too many Americans are suffering from the effects of poor nutrition. Through common-sense policymaking, we have an opportunity to give our most vulnerable families the tools they need to flourish.”

Table of Contents

WATCH:

Per USDA:

Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced that Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., M.D., was sworn in as the National Advisor for Nutrition, Health, and Housing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“There is no one more qualified than Dr. Carson to advise on policies that improve Americans’ everyday quality of life, from nutrition to healthcare quality to ensuring families have access to safe and stable housing,” said Secretary Rollins.

“With six in ten Americans living with at least one chronic disease, and rural communities facing unique challenges with respect to adequate housing, Dr. Carson’s insight and experience is critical. Dr. Carson will be crucial to implementing the rural health investment provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill and advise on America First polices related to nutrition, health, and housing.

“As the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the first Trump Administration, Dr. Carson worked to expand opportunity and strengthen communities, and we are honored to welcome him to the second Trump Administration to help lead our efforts here at USDA to Make America Healthy Again and ensure rural America continues to prosper.”

“Today, too many Americans are suffering from the effects of poor nutrition. Through common-sense policymaking, we have an opportunity to give our most vulnerable families the tools they need to flourish,” said Dr. Ben Carson. “I am honored to work with Secretary Rollins on these important initiatives to help fulfill President Trump’s vision for a healthier, stronger America.”

On Sunday, Dr. Carson was one of the many speakers at the memorial service of the late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk.

During the memorial service, Carson highlighted that Kirk was shot at 12:24 p.m. and then continued to share the Bible verse John 12:24, which reads, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

WATCH:

The post President Trump Taps Dr. Ben Carson for New Role — A HUGE Win for America First Agenda appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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LEAKED MEMO: Deep State Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia Claim There Isn’t Enough Evidence to Convict Comey Amid Reports of Imminent Indictment

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19 hours ago

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September 25, 2025

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On Wednesday evening, disgruntled officials in the Eastern District of Virginia leaked contents of a memo explaining why charges should not be brought against James Comey.

As reported earlier, former FBI Director James Comey is expected to be indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia in the next few days.

Comey will reportedly be charged for lying to Congress in a 2020 testimony about whether he authorized leaks to the media.

Officials in the Eastern District of Virginia are still fighting to stop Comey from being charged after Trump fired US Attorney Erik Siebert.

President Trump last week fired Erik Siebert as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia because he refused to bring charges against Letitia James, Comey, Schiff and others.

On Saturday evening, President Trump announced that he had appointed Lindsey Halligan – his personal attorney who defended him against the Mar-a-Lago raid – as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Now, with just days to go before the statute of limitations runs out to charge Comey for lying during a September 30, 2020 testimony, Lindsey Halligan is reportedly gearing up to indict Comey.

Prosecutors reportedly gave newly sworn-in Halligan a memo defending James Comey and explaining why charges should not brought against the fired FBI Director.

Per MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian:

Two sources familiar with the matter tell me prosecutors in the EDVA US attorney‘s office presented newly sworn US attorney Lindsey Halligan with a memo explaining why charges should not be brought against James Comey, because there isn’t enough evidence to establish probable cause a crime was committed, let alone enough to convince a jury to convict him.

Justice Department guidelines say a case should not be brought unless prosecutors believe it’s more likely than not that they can win a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.

The post LEAKED MEMO: Deep State Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia Claim There Isn’t Enough Evidence to Convict Comey Amid Reports of Imminent Indictment appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Nearly 8 in 10 Voters Say the United States is in Political Crisis After the Assassination of Charlie Kirk

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20 hours ago

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September 25, 2025

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Nearly eight in ten voters believe that the United States is in a political crisis in the wake of the assassination of conservative icon Charlie Kirk.

According to a Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters released on Wednesday, a massive 93 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of independents, and 60 percent of Republicans said the nation is in a political crisis.

“The Kirk assassination lays bare raw, bipartisan concerns about where the country is headed,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said of the poll results.

Quinnipiac reports:

Seventy-one percent of voters think politically motivated violence in the United States today is a very serious problem, 22 percent think it is a somewhat serious problem, 3 percent think it is a not so serious problem, and 1 percent think it is not a problem at all.

This is a jump from Quinnipiac University’s June 26 poll when 54 percent thought politically motivated violence in the United States today was a very serious problem, 37 percent thought it was a somewhat serious problem, 6 percent thought it was a not so serious problem, and 2 percent thought it was not a problem at all.

Nearly 6 in 10 voters (58 percent) think it will not be possible to lower the temperature on political rhetoric and speech in the United States, while 34 percent think it will be possible.

Over half, 54 percent, of voters believe the US will see increased political violence over the next few years. Another 27 percent said they think it will stay “about the same,” while just 14 percent believe it will ease.

A 53 percent majority also said they are “pessimistic about freedom of speech being protected in the United States.”

Surprisingly, a 53 percent majority also believes the current system of democracy is not working.

“From a perceived assault on freedom of speech to the fragility of the democracy, a shudder of concern and pessimism rattles a broad swath of the electorate. Nearly 80 percent of registered voters feel they are witnessing a political crisis, seven in ten say political violence is a very serious problem, and a majority say this discord won’t go away anytime soon,” Malloy added.

The vast majority, 82 percent, said the way that people discuss politics is contributing to the violence.

“When asked if political discourse is contributing to violence, a rare meeting of the minds…Republicans, Democrats, and independents in equal numbers say yes, it is,” Malloy said.

The survey was conducted from September 18 to 21 among 1,276 registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.

The post Nearly 8 in 10 Voters Say the United States is in Political Crisis After the Assassination of Charlie Kirk appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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