GSA Shuts On-Ramp for Office Supply Schedule GSA will stop accepting new companies on its Schedule 75 for office supplies. The agency said the door will be closed for two years starting Oct. 1. GSA wants to push office-supply sales through 15 blanket purchase agreements that were awarded in June. The Obama administration has pointed to the BPAs as a prime example of how strategic sourcing can save taxpayers money. In an announcement posted on FedBizOpps, GSA said it will continue to exercise options for existing Schedule 75 holders. New offers submitted before Oct. 1 will be considered for award. Scott Orbach, president of the consulting firm EZGSA, says current schedule holders may lose their contracts if they fail to meet the $25,000 minimum sales threshold or if their online catalogs are not up-to-date. A company that is dropped from the schedule could not re-apply until 2012. There are currently more than 500 companies on Schedule 75. Fifteen of them were awarded blanket purchase agreements, including 11 small businesses. (SAA, 6/11) In its RFP for the BPAs, GSA took the unusual step of listing “prices to beat” on a wide variety of products. The agency forecasts the government will save nearly $200 million over five years by purchasing supplies through the BPAs. Orbach said the temporary shutdown of Schedule 75 may be a harbinger of things to come. He said GSA is unable to keep up with a glut of new applications for its multiple award schedules, because more companies are seeking federal business during the recession. GSA’s MOBIS acquisition center recently warned that applications have tripled and it is now processing offers that were submitted in January. “We can expect backlogs to spread throughout all the GSA Schedule acquisition centers, and we may see more suspensions like Schedule 75,” Orbach said in a post on the company’s blog. “GSA Schedule holders have to make sure that their Schedule is compliant with all current GSA requirements and they need to be aware of when their contracts are set to expire.”