The joint proposal from the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration (GSA) and NASA requires agencies to write a report when they choose not to buy supplies or services through existing government contracts.
In the report, the contracting officer must compare the price of the goods or services selected with the prices offered through the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI), a program the government created to streamline government purchases.
But small businesses say that what appears to be a simple administrative change could dismantle the Small Business Act.
“I’ve worked in government contracting for years, and to say to do something you will have to write a separate justification that someone has to sign off on — no one is going to take that avenue,” said Belinda Guadarrama, president and CEO of GC Micro, a California-based software management company with 40 employees. “Everyone is going to buy off FSSI contracts. These are not small businesses.”
Keep reading this article at: http://thehill.com/regulation/business/291722-small-businesses-fear-rule-changes-will-crater-federal-contract-chances
