Until recently, the use of General Services Administration (GSA) schedule contracts by state and local government was limited to Schedule 70, Information Technology. Recently, under congressional authority, GSA amended its regulations to allow state and local governments to use GSA schedules to facilitate recovery from a major disaster, terrorism or nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attack.
Existing GSA schedule contracts are being modified to reflect recovery purchasing authority. The modification is voluntary, meaning that GSA Schedule contractors have the option of deciding whether they will accept orders under Section 833 (Recovery Purchasing), placed by state and local government buyers.
Unlike the existing cooperative purchasing authority on the IT Schedule, this authority is limited. It can only be used by state and local governments to aid in recovering from a disaster as defined above. This does include advance purchasing and pre-positioning in preparation for a disaster.
State and local government entities means: the states of the United States, counties, municipalities, cities, towns, townships, tribal governments, public authorities (including public or Indian housing agencies under the United States Housing Act of 1937), school districts, colleges and other institutions of higher education, council of governments (Incorporated or not), regional or interstate government entities, or any other agency or instrumentality of the preceding entities (including any local educational agency or institution of higher education), and including legislative and judicial departments.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Recovery Purchasing (Section 833)?
Section 833 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, authorizes the Administrator of the General Services Administration to provide for the use by state or local governments of Federal Supply Schedules for goods or services that are to be used to facilitate recovery from a major disaster declared by the President under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, or to facilitate recovery from terrorism or nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attack.
- What is a "major disaster"?
A "major disaster" is defined by the Act to mean a natural catastrophe in any part of the United States, including its territories, which in the determination of the President causes sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant major disaster assistance to supplement the efforts and available resources of state and local governments. For more information on the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, go to www.fema.gov/about/stafact.shtm
This is a major step for the GSA program. The new authority could result is considerable business for GSA schedule contractors in situations like Katrina. And the authorization may be a precursor to the opening up of all schedules for state and local agencies. Conversely, state and local use of all schedules may take a while since it requires congressional legislation.
Start the GSA Process Today and Have Your GSA Award Letter in Hand this Summer,
Ready to Take Advantage of the Government's 4th Quarter Spending Spree
How?
Attend Our March 6, 2007 GSA Proposal Preparation eLab
If you want an award letter from GSA on your desk by July 1, 2007 you better act now.
If you submit your GSA proposal by mid-March it will be mid-June before you receive your GSA Schedule award. The governments 4th quarter, the months of July, August and September, are use it or lose it months; federal agencies either spend their remaining dollars or they lose them. The government's 4th quarter is a very profitable time for federal contractors, be ready to do business with them by having your GSA Schedule in hand.
The truth is in order to have a proposal ready to submit to GSA by mid-March you will need to attend the March 6 - 8th GSA eLab. If you decide to pay a company to prepare your GSA Schedule for you, they may not have a proposal ready to submit to GSA by March 15 or even March 30th. Why? Because there is no urgency for you to actually collect and deliver the corporate data a full services firm would require in preparing your proposal. We see it all the time. We have full service GSA clients that began the process last year and still haven't gathered the corporate data needed to complete the process. There is no urgency for them; it's too easy to put the task off another day, another month, or in some cases forever. The GSA eLab creates the urgency for you. You commit to attending and begin gathering the data you need to bring to class. It is a little like being in school again, your paper is due on Tuesday, no excuses. That's the secret of the eLab, you are focused, no interruptions, no distractions. A GSA specialist works with you, you waste no time searching for answers to questions you are unsure of. This is the reason for the staggering success rate of our customers; the GSA eLab creates the intense focus required to get the proposal finished in 3 days or less.
Our eLab is effective because we force our customers to focus and plan for the future.
Fedmarket.com's GSA Proposal Preparation eLab has helped hundreds of companies obtain GSA approval.
Sign-up for our GSA Proposal Preparation eLab today!
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Regards,
Richard White
President
Fedmarket.com
The Federal Sales Academy
rwhite@fedmarket.com
(301) 652 - 9504 ext. 18 (office)
(301) 908 - 0546 (cell)
Free Informative Whitepaper: GSA Schedules 
