Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement
The order directs federal agencies to consolidate their common-goods procurement under the General Services Administration, and designates GSA as the executive agent for all government-wide information technology acquisition contracts.
Centralizing routine purchasing — currently fragmented across dozens of agencies — is meant to cut duplication and save money from the federal government's roughly $490 billion annual contracting budget.
What this order does
What it orders
The order directs every federal agency to submit proposals to the GSA Administrator within 60 days, outlining how GSA can take over the agency's domestic procurement of common goods and services. Within 90 days, the GSA Administrator must submit a comprehensive consolidation plan to the OMB Director. Separately, within 30 days, the OMB Director must formally designate the GSA Administrator as executive agent for all government-wide IT acquisition contracts; within 14 days, OMB must issue a memorandum to agencies implementing that IT designation. GSA is also directed to rationalize and eliminate duplicative or redundant indefinite-delivery contract vehicles for IT on an ongoing basis.
The order applies only where permitted by law and is subject to available appropriations. It explicitly preserves existing legal authorities of agency heads and OMB's budgetary and legislative functions, and creates no enforceable individual rights.
Who it affects
All executive branch departments and agencies (excluding the Executive Office of the President) that currently conduct their own procurement of common goods and services, senior procurement officials within those agencies, and private-sector vendors that hold or compete for government-wide IT acquisition contracts.
Why it matters
Agencies that currently run their own purchasing offices for standard goods and services could see those functions transferred to GSA. Vendors holding government-wide IT contracts may face consolidation or elimination of redundant vehicles, reshaping the federal IT contracting market.
What must happen and when
How the order is supposed to work
The process runs in four overlapping tracks with firm deadlines: OMB issues an implementing memo to agencies within 14 days; OMB designates GSA as IT executive agent within 30 days; agencies submit consolidation proposals to GSA within 60 days; and GSA delivers a government-wide procurement plan to OMB within 90 days. GSA then rationalizes IT contract vehicles on an ongoing basis. Each step feeds the next, but the order contains no enforcement mechanism beyond the reporting structure — actual transfers depend on agency cooperation and subsequent rulemaking or agreements consistent with applicable law.
Actions and deadlines
- OMB Director issues a memorandum to agencies implementing the GSA IT executive agent designation
- OMB Director formally designates the GSA Administrator as executive agent for all government-wide IT acquisition contracts
- Agency heads submit proposals to the GSA Administrator for GSA to conduct domestic procurement of common goods and services
- GSA Administrator submits a comprehensive procurement consolidation plan to the OMB Director
- GSA Administrator rationalizes and eliminates duplicative government-wide IT indefinite delivery contract vehicles