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HUD joining GSA centralized acquisition services pilot

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5 days ago

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The Department of Housing and Urban Development is the third agency to move its contracting for common goods and services to the General Services Administration.

HUD joined the Office of Personnel Management and the Small Business Administration in using GSA’s Office of Centralized Acquisition Services for buying things like IT services, office management or medical supplies under the category management initiative.

“We’ve been on a journey to design a scalable, efficient acquisition structure that consolidates the procurement of common goods and services across government at the enterprise level. What does this mean? It means that we’re going to be leveraging our multiple award schedules, our governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) and shared services as the backbone of federal procurement,” said Tom Meiron, the assistant commissioner for OCAS, at a Federal Acquisition Service town hall on Wednesday, a recording of which Federal News Network obtained. “We’ll be consolidating spend across governmentwide categories and moving to eliminate duplicative contracts. “We’ll be driving efficiencies by phasing out redundant contracts and leaning into shared services, integrating policy and common support functions. OCAS is delivering on this vision by shifting common contract workload away from agencies so that they can focus primarily on their mission-specific, complex requirements that support their agencies.”

GSA says the initial pilots with OPM and SBA are already showing promise.

Laura Stanton, the deputy commissioner of FAS, said GSA’s efforts to buy common goods and services for OPM and SBA are 37% more efficient than what the agencies did on their own.

Since March, GSA is managing more than 908 contracts worth $1.5 billion from OPM and SBA. OCAS now includes more than 120 contracting officers.

“We’ve achieved $6.5 million in savings through increased visibility and reduced software license and support services spent. How did we do that? $5.3 million came from optimizing Microsoft licenses for SBA, and another $1.2 million came from eliminating unneeded services,” Meiron said. “Before the transfer of the contracts to OCAS for support, OPM and SBA used GSA vehicles less than 30% of the time for their requirements, and used best-in-class contracts and GWACs less than 20%. Post transfers, 75% of those requirements now run through our schedules and our GWACs.”

GSA set up OCAS over the last several months in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order from March to consolidate the buying of common goods and services.  The Office of Management and Budget followed up with a memo in June, telling agencies to increase the use of centralized contracts managed by GSA and to centralize procurement functions at GSA when it “promotes greater economy and efficiency.”

“Use of GSA’s best-in-class contracts (BICs) and other governmentwide contracts has produced significant savings and cost avoidance, including an average savings rate of 38% for certain types of IT hardware and savings of $150 million in fiscal 2024 for identity protection services,” OMB stated in the memo. “Despite GSA’s successes, less than 20% of common spend currently goes through GSA.”

Source: OMB June 2025 memo.

As part of that executive order, GSA created OCAS and submitted a procurement consolidation plan to OMB.

Meiron said that GSA is waiting for OMB’s approval to finalize the standup of OCAS.

“We need to complete our contract transitions for the remaining pilot agencies and validate a repeatable model to expand across more agencies,” he said. “We will continue our agency engagement, explaining our processes, sharing lessons learned, listening to their feedback and fielding all of their queries. We will also continue to pilot artificial intelligence and automation solutions to help manage our capacity constraints and speed up our acquisition timelines.”

The future design of OCAS includes six functional offices to focus on operations, acquisition delivery, acquisition talent, compliance, customer engagement and program performance.

“This is a significant change, not just for FAS, but for the entire federal procurement ecosystem. We’re building the structure, the workforce and the tools to deliver centralized acquisition at scale together,” he said. “We’re shaping how the government buys common goods and services for the years to come. We’re saving taxpayer dollars, reducing duplication and we’re enabling agencies to focus on where it matters most, the crucial components of their mission.”

GO.gov is a go in November

Along those same consolidation lines, GSA also said its new travel management system, called GO.gov, is expected to go live with its first set of agency customers in November.

GSA awarded IBM a 15-year, $930.5 million contract in November and renamed the platform GO.gov in July.

GSA says that GO.gov is expected to save up to $131 million in related travel savings annually, and approximately $2 billion in administrative efficiencies over the life of the contract, by driving use of government-negotiated discounts.

Christina Kingsland, FAS’s assistant commissioner for the Office of Travel, Transportation and Logistics, said they are on track to implement GO.gov across all civilian agencies by the spring of 2027, well ahead of when the current E-Gov Travel Service 2 contract expires in December of that year.

“The first agencies, including GSA, go live in November,” Kingsland said. “We have signed memorandums of understanding from every agency. That commits them to the dates, and which tranche they are going to be onboarding, so that’ll keep us on track. We have a phased approach to onboard all of the agencies into the system before that contract expires. Initial operating capability agencies go first, not quite the full operating capability, so what you will see as a GSA employee will look different in the future.”

Along with GSA, Kingsland said the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) will also be in the first set of agencies moving to GO.gov.

She said the transition path for all agencies will include milestones along the way, including preparation and testing of the new system, closeout of the old one and ensuring that integration runs smoothly.

“The e-gov travel team is beginning to engage with agencies on a weekly basis about one year before their scheduled deployment date. And then about six months before, the technical configuration work with IBM, who manages the back end for GO.gov, starts,” she said. “Each agency is working through a project plan with some flexibility to customize their own critical milestones. But, of course, change management and the communication-related work is absolutely critical, and runs throughout the entire transition.”

The post HUD joining GSA centralized acquisition services pilot 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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17 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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17 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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17 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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