President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14240 (Mar. 20, 2025) provides for the General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator to assume responsibility for all Government-wide contracts for the acquisition of information technology and to develop a plan to consolidate purchasing of many other goods and services within GSA.
In this post, we discuss the impacts of EO 14240 on federal IT purchasing. We look at how EO 14240 will affect purchasing of common goods and services in a separate post.
EO 14240 gives the Administrator of the General Services Administration authority to act as the “executive agent” for “all Government-wide acquisition contracts for information technology.” EO 14240 § 3(c). The EO thus expands GSA’s contracting authority over information technology GWACs administered by agencies other than GSA. This would include NASA’s SEWP contracts and NIH’s CIO-SP contracts. These contracts have been used to purchase billions of dollars in IT hardware, software, and services.
GSA’s expanded role in managing IT GWACs will likely have an immediate and widespread impact on contractors and subcontractors holding these contracts. The authority granted to the GSA Administrator was effective April 19, 2025. EO 14240 § 3(c). It permits the Administrator to “defer or decline” its role as executive agent only “when necessary to continuity of service or as otherwise appropriate.” EO 14240 § 3(c).
Consolidating IT GWACs will likely eliminate some current contract opportunities that Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian deems duplicative, redundant, or wasteful. In his own blog entry on this subject, Ehikian stated that his goals are to “[r]ationalize IT infrastructure and software as a shared service” and to “standardize on one solution for each job in order to eliminate redundancy and wasteful spending.” https://www.gsa.gov/blog/2025/03/25/my-vision-for-gsa (last visited April 21, 2025).
Consolidating IT GWACs will also have an immediate effect on procurement and contract administration. Taking on the responsibility to administer these large complex contracts and competing, awarding, and enforcing thousands of delivery orders will likely require additional experienced procurement professionals.
Meeting the Government’s IT requirements through fewer GWACs will mean larger delivery orders going to fewer contractors and potentially a reduction in opportunities for small businesses. Some well-qualified contractors will lose out on the opportunity to deliver products and services for which they are well qualified. There is a real possibility that consolidating GWACs in GSA will reduce the pool of qualified contractors, decrease competition, and increase costs.
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