Connect with us

Politics

HUD joining GSA centralized acquisition services pilot

Published

9 months ago

on

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is the third agency to move its contracting for common goods and services to the General Services Administration.

HUD joined the Office of Personnel Management and the Small Business Administration in using GSA’s Office of Centralized Acquisition Services for buying things like IT services, office management or medical supplies under the category management initiative.

“We’ve been on a journey to design a scalable, efficient acquisition structure that consolidates the procurement of common goods and services across government at the enterprise level. What does this mean? It means that we’re going to be leveraging our multiple award schedules, our governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs) and shared services as the backbone of federal procurement,” said Tom Meiron, the assistant commissioner for OCAS, at a Federal Acquisition Service town hall on Wednesday, a recording of which Federal News Network obtained. “We’ll be consolidating spend across governmentwide categories and moving to eliminate duplicative contracts. “We’ll be driving efficiencies by phasing out redundant contracts and leaning into shared services, integrating policy and common support functions. OCAS is delivering on this vision by shifting common contract workload away from agencies so that they can focus primarily on their mission-specific, complex requirements that support their agencies.”

GSA says the initial pilots with OPM and SBA are already showing promise.

Laura Stanton, the deputy commissioner of FAS, said GSA’s efforts to buy common goods and services for OPM and SBA are 37% more efficient than what the agencies did on their own.

Since March, GSA is managing more than 908 contracts worth $1.5 billion from OPM and SBA. OCAS now includes more than 120 contracting officers.

“We’ve achieved $6.5 million in savings through increased visibility and reduced software license and support services spent. How did we do that? $5.3 million came from optimizing Microsoft licenses for SBA, and another $1.2 million came from eliminating unneeded services,” Meiron said. “Before the transfer of the contracts to OCAS for support, OPM and SBA used GSA vehicles less than 30% of the time for their requirements, and used best-in-class contracts and GWACs less than 20%. Post transfers, 75% of those requirements now run through our schedules and our GWACs.”

GSA set up OCAS over the last several months in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order from March to consolidate the buying of common goods and services.  The Office of Management and Budget followed up with a memo in June, telling agencies to increase the use of centralized contracts managed by GSA and to centralize procurement functions at GSA when it “promotes greater economy and efficiency.”

“Use of GSA’s best-in-class contracts (BICs) and other governmentwide contracts has produced significant savings and cost avoidance, including an average savings rate of 38% for certain types of IT hardware and savings of $150 million in fiscal 2024 for identity protection services,” OMB stated in the memo. “Despite GSA’s successes, less than 20% of common spend currently goes through GSA.”

Source: OMB June 2025 memo.

As part of that executive order, GSA created OCAS and submitted a procurement consolidation plan to OMB.

Meiron said that GSA is waiting for OMB’s approval to finalize the standup of OCAS.

“We need to complete our contract transitions for the remaining pilot agencies and validate a repeatable model to expand across more agencies,” he said. “We will continue our agency engagement, explaining our processes, sharing lessons learned, listening to their feedback and fielding all of their queries. We will also continue to pilot artificial intelligence and automation solutions to help manage our capacity constraints and speed up our acquisition timelines.”

The future design of OCAS includes six functional offices to focus on operations, acquisition delivery, acquisition talent, compliance, customer engagement and program performance.

“This is a significant change, not just for FAS, but for the entire federal procurement ecosystem. We’re building the structure, the workforce and the tools to deliver centralized acquisition at scale together,” he said. “We’re shaping how the government buys common goods and services for the years to come. We’re saving taxpayer dollars, reducing duplication and we’re enabling agencies to focus on where it matters most, the crucial components of their mission.”

GO.gov is a go in November

Along those same consolidation lines, GSA also said its new travel management system, called GO.gov, is expected to go live with its first set of agency customers in November.

GSA awarded IBM a 15-year, $930.5 million contract in November and renamed the platform GO.gov in July.

GSA says that GO.gov is expected to save up to $131 million in related travel savings annually, and approximately $2 billion in administrative efficiencies over the life of the contract, by driving use of government-negotiated discounts.

Christina Kingsland, FAS’s assistant commissioner for the Office of Travel, Transportation and Logistics, said they are on track to implement GO.gov across all civilian agencies by the spring of 2027, well ahead of when the current E-Gov Travel Service 2 contract expires in December of that year.

“The first agencies, including GSA, go live in November,” Kingsland said. “We have signed memorandums of understanding from every agency. That commits them to the dates, and which tranche they are going to be onboarding, so that’ll keep us on track. We have a phased approach to onboard all of the agencies into the system before that contract expires. Initial operating capability agencies go first, not quite the full operating capability, so what you will see as a GSA employee will look different in the future.”

Along with GSA, Kingsland said the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) will also be in the first set of agencies moving to GO.gov.

She said the transition path for all agencies will include milestones along the way, including preparation and testing of the new system, closeout of the old one and ensuring that integration runs smoothly.

“The e-gov travel team is beginning to engage with agencies on a weekly basis about one year before their scheduled deployment date. And then about six months before, the technical configuration work with IBM, who manages the back end for GO.gov, starts,” she said. “Each agency is working through a project plan with some flexibility to customize their own critical milestones. But, of course, change management and the communication-related work is absolutely critical, and runs throughout the entire transition.”

The post HUD joining GSA centralized acquisition services pilot first appeared on Federal News Network.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands

Published

2 months ago

on

April 25, 2026

By

A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.A digital artwork featuring two men engaged in discussion, with a prominent image of Donald Trump in the background, creating a dramatic political atmosphere.Failing allies, leftist-Globalists Sanchez (Spain) and Starmer (UK) are about to taste retribution from Trump – Wiki Commons

Failing allies under pressure.

As we have been reporting here on TGP, US President Donald J. Trump is hardly the man to forgive and forget a slight or a betrayal.

And it’s been reported that Trump and his team have compiled a ‘naughty list’ of failing allies, and that some for of payback was expected against these countries.

And today, it arises that the Pentagon is exploring ways to punish NATO countries that failed to support the US during the Iran conflict – including drastic measures like suspending Spain from the alliance.

This was first reported by Reuters, but was picked up by a multitude of outlets, primarily in the UK, where there is widespread concern over the planned US ‘review’ of the British claim to the Falkland Islands.

Daily Mail reported:

“The policy options are detailed in an email expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant Washington access, basing and overflight (ABO) rights for the Iran war. The email stated that ABO is ‘just the absolute baseline for NATO,’ according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.

The memo also includes an option to consider reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European ‘imperial possessions,’ such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.”

Needless to say, the response by the Euro-Globalists was immediate.

On the one hand, NATO states there is no provision to oust Spain, while the UK reaffirms its sovereignty over the South American Islands.

Read more:

NATO and the Bar Fight: A Bar Tab Europe Expects America To Pay Forever

The post PAYBACK TIME: US Department of War Planning Retribution for Failing Allies, Including Suspending Spain From the Alliance and ‘Reviewing’ UK’s Claims to the Falkland Islands appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Politics

AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America

Published

2 months ago

on

April 25, 2026

By

Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Image depicting tattered flags of Germany and Japan with the text "The Axis of Losers," symbolizing the Axis Powers of World War II.Japan and Germany are dying from the same disease: socialism.

Back in the late 1980s and early ’90s, the so-called “experts,” the mainstream media, and every smug Ivy League economist couldn’t stop drooling over Japan. “Japan as Number One!” they screamed. Books flew off the shelves. Newsweek and Time covers warned of an “economic Pearl Harbor.”

Paul Harvey wailed about Japan buying up America with our own money. Paul Kennedy’s bestseller The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers basically coronated the Land of the Rising Sun as the next global hegemon.

The keiretsu system, the MITI bureaucrats, the lifetime employment model — it was all supposed to be the future. America was finished. The Japanese were going to own us.

Fast-forward to 2025-2026. Japan is a cautionary tale on life support. GDP per capita (PPP) hovers around a pathetic $55,000–$56,000 — crushed by America’s nearly $94,000. After taxes and cost of living? It’s even worse. The “Lost Decades” aren’t a glitch — they’re the feature. Zombie companies, endless stagnation, and a demographic death spiral made infinitely worse by policies that treat businesses like government welfare offices rather than wealth-creation machines.

The mainstream press will blame everything except the real culprit: the deliberate socialization of the corporation.

Keiretsu

In Japan, it’s the infamous keiretsu system — giant corporate clans glued together by cross-shareholdings and a house bank that plays mommy to every failing division. Lifetime employment. Seniority-based pay and promotions instead of merit. Company unions that treat every layoff like a war crime. The goal isn’t profit — heaven forbid — it’s “harmony” and keeping everyone employed forever. Result? Total paralysis. You can’t fire the dead weight. You can’t reallocate capital to what actually works. You can’t innovate like a maniac because revolution is “disruptive.”

When the 1990s bubble popped, they didn’t clean house — they dragged toxic debt around like a ball and chain for decades.

And don’t look now, but Germany — once the envy of Europe — is right there with them in the loser’s club. Years of zero or outright negative growth. Factories shuttering. The proud German export machine is coughing up blood. The vaunted “Rhine model” has turned into a slow-motion industrial suicide.

Mitbestimmung

Because Germany took the socialization even further with the notorious Mitbestimmung — “co-determination.” In big companies, workers and union reps literally occupy half the seats on the supervisory board. They get veto power over layoffs, plant closings, relocations, and major restructurings. It’s not capitalism anymore — it’s corporate communism with better engineering. The boardroom isn’t deciding how to crush competitors and reward shareholders; it’s negotiating how to protect today’s insiders at the expense of tomorrow’s growth.

Add in the deranged Energiewende — the green energy fantasy that tripled electricity costs — and you have the perfect storm. German industry is literally powering down while the rest of the world races ahead.

BMW/Tesla

Want proof? Look at BMW versus Tesla. BMW sells about 2.5 million vehicles a year. Tesla sells around 1.5 million. BMW’s market cap? A measly ~$55 billion. Tesla’s? Over twenty times higher. One company is run by visionaries who embrace the future and reward risk-takers. The other is run like a German labor ministry with a side hustle in cars.

This is what happens when you let “stakeholders” — code for unions, bureaucrats, and professional grievance-mongers — hijack the boardroom. The enterprise stops being a profit machine that lifts everyone through growth and becomes a social-work project designed to protect yesterday’s workers at the expense of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, young people, and innovators.

It’s the exact same philosophy the American left has been trying to smuggle into U.S. boardrooms for years: ESG scores, “stakeholder capitalism,” DEI mandates, union power grabs, and the constant war on shareholders. They call it compassionate. It’s actually economic castration. Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” — the engine of real progress — gets sacrificed on the altar of Karl Marx’s class warfare dressed up in a suit and tie.

America’s model is raw, unapologetic, and brutally effective: The company exists to make money for its owners. Management executes or gets fired. You restructure, you pivot, you kill failing divisions without crying about “humanity.” It looks ugly to the European and Japanese salon socialists. It also creates the iPhones, the SpaceX rockets, the shale revolution, and the stock market that funds retirements for millions.

The Axis of Losers

Japan and Germany didn’t fail because of demographics or one bad energy policy. They failed because they turned their greatest companies into paralyzed extensions of the welfare state. The “Axis of Losers” chose preservation over progress — and they’re paying for it in lost decades and lost futures.

America still has a choice. We can reject this European-Japanese corporate socialism, tell the unions and the stakeholder grifters to pound sand, and keep rewarding the risk-takers and wealth-creators who actually build the future.

Or we can follow the Axis of Losers straight into the economic graveyard. The choice should be obvious — but the radical left never learns. They just rebrand failure as “equity” and keep selling the same poison. Don’t let them.

The post AXIS OF ECONOMIC LOSERS: Japan and Germany’s Socialist “Stakeholder” Takeover Turned Economic Superpowers Into Stagnant Ghost Towns – And the Left Wants This Poison for America appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Politics

WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number

Published

2 months ago

on

April 25, 2026

By

Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

Woman speaking to the media in a hallway while a man is seen attacking another person on the street in a separate scene.

A horrifying video from New York has sparked nationwide outrage after a 14-year-old boy was caught on camera brutally body-slamming a 15-year-old girl to the concrete and then stomping on her head, all because she refused to give him her phone number.

Now, the boy’s mother is publicly defending her son, claiming the victim was “bullying” him and that his savage and animalistic attack was somehow justified because he is a “humble” Christian.

The shocking attack occurred around 3:30 p.m. on Monday at the corner of East 107th Street and Third Avenue in East Harlem, just after school let out.

The 15-year-old girl, a ninth-grade student-athlete at East Harlem Scholars Academy Charter School heading to squash practice, was confronted by the 14-year-old masked suspect, who had reportedly been harassing her for weeks.

In the disturbing footage, the girl is seen trying to walk away and yelling, “Get the f–k away from me.”

The boy follows her, grabs her from behind, lifts her off the ground, slams her to the pavement, and then stomps directly on her head.

His friends can be heard laughing and egging him on as the girl lies motionless on the ground.

WATCH (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED):

The girl suffered a concussion and was rushed to Harlem Hospital.

The 14-year-old suspect was arrested on Wednesday and appeared in Manhattan Family Court, where he was ordered held in custody by the Division of Youth and Family Justice.

Because both parties are minors, his name has not been publicly released.

In an interview captured outside the courthouse, the boy’s mother, Selma Allen, issued a wild defense of her violent son.

WATCH:

Allen claimed the 15-year-old girl had been bullying him in school, sending messages, and even pushing him down, and that this somehow justified the vicious attack.

“She was being a bully to him, that’s it,” Allen told reporters.

“He’s been complaining about her. I bring it to the principal’s attention but he don’t address it. The way my son is being bullied, he doesn’t want to go to school.”

She claimed her son is a “quiet” boy who “doesn’t provoke nobody,” and described him as a “humble Christian.”

“He don’t provoke nobody. But if you provoke him, he will lash out.”

Allen insisted her son had proof on WhatsApp and Instagram and repeatedly shifted blame onto the victim while downplaying the savage stomp on the girl’s head.

None of the reporters asked the obvious question: if the girl was truly bullying him, why was he aggressively demanding her phone number and following her?

The victim’s mother, Lucinda Arroyo, spoke out Thursday in an interview with the New York Post. She said her daughter had been dealing with weeks of harassment from the boy and said it was a “miracle” her daughter survived.

“She’s very upset that her whole life has been completely flipped upside down right now,” Arroyo said. “She’s known him as someone who’s bad news for a while.”

“This is not even bullying, this is outright assault — and he could have killed her,” she asserted.

Her daughter was left with a concussion, bleeding, a potential brain injury, crushing headaches and a twisted neck, and will require ongoing physical therapy.

The post WATCH: Mother of Feral NYC Teen Who Body-Slammed and Stomped 15-Year-Old Girl’s Head DEFENDS Violent Son, Claims Victim ‘Bullied’ Him After She Refused to Give Him Her Phone Number appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Continue Reading

Trending