On May 4, 2015, the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration wrote the General Services Administration (GSA) regarding a proposed rulemaking for the collection of transactional data on Federal Schedule and non-Federal Schedule contracts.

GSA’s proposed rule involves the creation of a Common Acquisition Platform (CAP), an online marketplace to identify best-in-class contracts issued by GSA or other agencies.  The proposed rule would impose a Contractor Access Fee (80 Federal Register 11620, March 4, 2015).  The regulation proposed by GSA would create an immediate government-wide transactional data reporting requirement for non-Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts. The requirement would be phased-in for FSS contracts.

The Office of Advocacy wrote GSA on May 4, 2015, regarding the proposed regulation and recommended postponing the rulemaking to conduct a formal stakeholder outreach process throughout the country.  Specifically, SBA’s Advocacy Office:

• Urged GSA to conduct a more detailed impact assessment of this proposed rule on small businesses and take into consideration the rate of small business participation in the acquisition process and not just focus on the percentage of dollars being awarded to small businesses.
• Would like GSA to examine the potential unintended consequences of this rule on small business resellers.  Most small businesses that are on a GSA schedule are value added resellers to the same original equipment makers who are also on GSA schedules.  Because of the lack of data in the Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (IRFA), it is unclear how GSA will balance the potential conflict between these two business entities.

See Advocacy’s complete comments at  https://www.sba.gov/category/advocacy-navigation-structure/legislative-actions/regulatory-comment-letters.

For more information, contact SBA’s Major Clark at 202-205-7150 or major.clark@sba.gov.