States, Locals Face Barriers to Using GSA Schedule State and local governments are likely to be slow to take advantage of their new right to purchase through GSA’s information technology schedule, Schedule 70, according to an analysis by the research firm Input of Chantilly, VA. The E-government Act passed by Congress last year opens the IT schedule for state and local buyers. “Similar to the trend we’ve seen with federal agencies, we anticipate state and local government adoption of the Schedule 70 vehicle to be slow initially, but steadily rise as current legal and accounting barriers are overcome,” says Marcus Fedeli, an Input specialist in state and local markets. In the long run, however, the analysis says the legislation “will drastically alter the procurement landscape.” “There are many barriers that must be resolved before this purchasing arrangement will work smoothly,” Input says. Some states, including California and Ohio, have their own multiple award schedules. Others, such as North Carolina, have set up statewide contract vehicles for use by state and local agencies. In other states, legal barriers either prevent agencies from using GSA schedules or make it more complicated. “The administrative workload of approving a Schedule 70 purchase in New York would dissuade any state agency from working with GSA until the system is modified,” Fedeli said. In a separate analysis, the market research firm Federal Sources Inc., said, “One major hurdle to pursuing this purchasing agreement is the need for a government body to resolve state and local government disputes with schedule contractors.” GSA’s proposed rule implementing the law says that schedule contractors are not required to do business with states and localities. The proposed rule is open for public comment until March 24. GSA expects it to take effect in April. GSA has scheduled a public meeting on the proposed rule March 10 at 9 a.m. in Room C-43, Crystal Mall Building 3, Arlington, VA.