Current Federal Happenings

In early 2025, the current administration took various steps to reduce the federal civilian workforce, which stood at roughly 2.4 million employees.

Through a rapid-fire combination of the Deferred Resignation Program (which paid employees to step down), the firing of probationary workers, targeted Reductions in Force (RIFs), and the removal of certain contract employees, the government has undergone the largest staff contraction in modern history:

~300,000 Federal Workers removed (or accepted buyouts) by late 2025/early 2026

~150,000 Contract Workers cut on top of the total Federal Reduction

The Procurement Impact: Why Open-Market Bidding Is Dying… Dead.

For federal buyers, custom open-market contracting is a resource hog. A traditional, agency-specific contract requires a multi-month runway: drafting technical statements of work, publishing to SAM.gov, executing a lengthy source-selection evaluation board, checking past performance, and auditing cost data. With roughly 10% of the workforce no longer available, the administrative capacity to do this has evaporated.

Furthermore, the administration signed explicit directives — such as Executive Order 14240 (Consolidating Procurement) and Executive Order 14275 (Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement) — aimed at slashing administrative redundancy and chopping down the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) by a staggering 25%.

Old Procurement Model vs New Model

2.4 million civil servants vs 2.1 million civil servants

Overlapping agency specific RFPs vs Strict procurement consolidation via EO 14240

Massive custom contract sourcing vs Pre-vetted, pre-negotiated GSA pools

6-12 Months per award vs Sourced & Awarded in Days/Weeks

The Only Solution: The Forced Funnel Onto GSA Schedules

Because agencies are under intense pressure to drop spending while facing a severe deficit of contracting officers, the procurement pipeline is experiencing a forced funneling effect.

The GSA Schedule acts as a pre-packaged “fast-pass” for three major reasons:

-Pre-Negotiated Pricing

GSA has already audited the vendor’s commercial prices and determined them to be “fair and reasonable,” meaning the individual agency doesn’t have to conduct a cost-accounting audit.

-Instant Vetting

The vendors on the schedule have already cleared federal legal, financial, and cybersecurity compliance hurdles.

-Velocity

A contracting officer can execute a “GSA eBuy” request or place a direct task order against an existing schedule in a fraction of the time it takes to run a traditional open-market procurement.

What This Means for GSA Vendors

GSA Year – Small Business Sales – Small Business Firms – Avg Sales Per Firm

2025 - $14 Billion – 12,600 - $1.4 Million

2027 (est) - $30 Billion – 15,000 - $2 Million

2029 (proj) - $50 Billion – 20,000 - $2.5 Million

If a business wants to secure federal revenue in this current environment, trying to hunt for standalone, independent agency RFPs is a losing strategy. The personnel aren’t there to read them or award them.

The GSA Schedule has shifted from being a convenient option to an absolute barrier to entry. If you are on the schedule, you are inside the rapidly shrinking perimeter of where the remaining federal buyers are legally allowed — and logistically forced — to spend money.

Are you inside the perimeter? If you are not, I recommend immediately contacting Advance GSA to map out your GSA Schedule path together with an industry expert. Don’t wait until others beat you to the contracts. They do not charge for an initial consultation.