How Small Office Supply Firms Broke Up a Bundle Small office supply dealers, with help from members of Congress, persuaded the Army to break up a $100 million nationwide contract that was to be awarded to the industry’s giants. But it wasn’t easy. “It took us about a year and a half, but at the end of the day, the Department of the Army, to its credit, opened up the process again,” said Paul Miller, director of government affairs for the National Office Products Alliance, an industry group He told Set-Aside Alert the Army circulated its original RFP only to the industry’s Big Four: Corporate Express, Boise Cascade, Office Depot and Staples. Contracting officers believed those companies were the only ones capable of handling the needs of all Army installations in the continental United States. “The Department of the Army’s contracting officers knew very little about this industry,” Miller said. It took a combination of education and political pressure to turn the Army around. Miller credited House Small Business Committee Chairman Donald Manzullo (R-IL) and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Nydia Velazquez (NY), for going to bat for small dealers. “Manzullo was a big force behind it. And Congresswoman Velazquez, too.” he said. The Office Products Alliance met with a succession of Army officials, explaining that smaller firms could meet their requirements by filling orders online. At one stage the Army said it would award blanket purchase agreements to Office Depot, Corporate Express and six small firms, Miller said. The alliance pushed for more small-business participation. This spring the Army announced its final decision: It awarded blanket purchase agreements to 16 small firms and two teams comprising about 300 other small dealers. Rep. Manzullo said in a statement that the decision “is just the latest example of the Bush Administration fighting back against contract bundling and awarding federal contracts to small businesses in America.” An Army Contracting Agency spokeswoman did not return phone calls seeking comment. Encouraged by this success, Miller said the alliance is now urging other agencies to break up their bundled contracts. The next target is the Air Force.