Agencies must shift procurement of common goods and services to GSA, which is now the government’s executive agent for procurement of information technology.

By Dean W. Baxtresser, Kyle R. Jefcoat, Anne W. Robinson, Morgan L. Maddoux, and Chris Caulder

On March 20, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement” (the Order), which consolidates under the General Services Administration (GSA) federal procurement of common goods and services and government-wide acquisition contracts for information technology (IT). The Order aims to return GSA to its “original purpose” of performing “core procurement services for agencies” rather than allowing federal agencies to continue procuring common goods and services independently. (See the Order and the fact sheet.)

The Order requires agency heads to submit proposals to GSA for it to procure common goods and services for their agency within 60 days. The Order requires GSA to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a comprehensive plan outlining its procurement of common goods and services for the federal government within 90 days.

The Order uses the Category Management Leadership Council’s 10 government-wide categories to define “common goods and services.” These include categories of products and services used across the federal government such as office management, transportation and logistics, and medical. Significantly, the medical category includes drugs and pharmaceutical products, healthcare services, and medical equipment acquired for the federal government.

Traditionally, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have managed such procurements. In fact, since 1960, the VA has administered federal supply schedule contracts in the medical category under a delegation of authority from GSA. The Order does not state if the VA will continue in that role.

The Order focuses on IT by requiring OMB to designate GSA as the executive agent for all government-wide acquisition contracts for IT within 30 days. The Order provides GSA with some discretion in accepting that executive agent designation “when necessary to ensure continuity of service or as otherwise appropriate.”

As part of the Trump administration’s efforts to promote government efficiency, the Order requires GSA to rationalize government-wide indefinite delivery contracts for IT to identify and eliminate duplicate contracts. Within 14 days, OMB is required to issue a memorandum to federal agencies implementing the Order’s IT-related directives.

While GSA currently administers many government-wide acquisition contracts for IT, other agencies also run major government-wide acquisition contracts, such as NASA’s Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) contracts and the NIH’s Chief Information Officer-Solutions and Partners (CIO-SP) contracts. It is unclear whether GSA will exercise its executive agent authority over these major IT acquisition programs or defer that authority to ensure continuity of service.

Contractors that provide common goods and services under direct contracts with individual agencies should be mindful of the government’s shift to a centralized procurement approach for such goods and services. In addition, contractors should monitor for new opportunities to provide common goods and services under GSA contracts.

Latham lawyers are carefully monitoring the rollout of new government procurement guidance.