Editor’s Note: Online GSA marketplaces are live at GSA Advantage! for shopping by category.
CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
By Tom McCuin
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018 passed the Senate by voice vote [November 16th], and awaits the president’s signature. The House version of the bill included several acquisition reforms that comprised the third was of reforms championed by the House Armed Services Committee chairman, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.). Among these was a provision requiring the government to purchase commercial items, those things that are not defense-specific and are available off-the-shelf, through an e-commerce portal.
Triumph of the ‘Amazon Bill’
The provision has become known as the “Amazon bill,” since Thornberry talked-up the capabilities Amazon.com and other online merchants when discussing his vision for how the government buys everyday items. ““Everybody understands what a difference Amazon has made,” Thornberry said early in the process.
Currently, these items are purchased through the General Services Administration’s “schedules,” which GSA describes as “long-term government-wide contracts with commercial firms to provide access to millions of commercial products and services at volume discount pricing.” The NDAA would upend that system, which critics like Thornberry view as cumbersome, outdated and inefficient. The bill requires the use of multiple online vendors “that are widely used in the private sector,” to be “implemented in phases.”
Those phases are to be included in an implementation plan completed by the Office of Management and Budget within 90 days of enactment, and a review of that plan by the Comptroller General’s office within 90 days of that plan’s submission. This will delay, but not stop, the implementation of the program.
Continue reading the story about online GSA marketplaces on ClearanceJobs.com.
Watch President Donald Trump sign the 2018 NDAA Bill: