Veteran Advocacy

Recently the General Services Administration (GSA) awarded contracts for the third iteration of the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) for Office Supplies (OS3). Previous versions of this acquisition strategy caused severe economic hardship for businesses who were selling office supplies under GSA Schedule 75 as many government agencies required purchases to be made only under FSSI contracts. These mandates required agencies to only purchase office supplies from one of the 24 chosen FSSI companies. All of the other small businesses who used to sell to these agencies can no longer do so and many have lost their livelihoods.

There is no doubt that the FSSI initiative is hurting small businesses and yet GSA not only continues to renew the office supply contract but has also introduced similar initiatives for Jan/San and MRO. Every time a new FSSI acquisition is awarded more small business suffer. The GSA ignores this fact and instead uses flawed figures to tout the initiative’s success.

As you may have heard, we suffered a setback in our fight against FSSI when the GSA denied our protest of OS3. However, we are not giving up and are pursuing new avenues. Please don’t let this setback defeat us. Keep fighting. Our cause is not lost.

You can help by continuing to reach out to your lawmakers, friends, family, local press, and professional organizations. The more people that understand the devastating effects of FSSI, the stronger our argument becomes. Please keep our fight at the top of everyone’s mind.