Ruling on GSA Schedule Set-Asides Due in January The Office of Federal Procurement Policy has promised to rule next month on whether certain GSA schedule orders and contracts awarded overseas are eligible for set-aside. The Federal Acquisition Regulation exempts those contracts from set-aside requirements. Raul Espinoza, founder of the Fairness in Procurement Alliance, asked for the OFPP ruling, contending that the exemptions violate provisions of the Small Business Act. The Act requires contracts between $3,000 and $100,000 to be set aside if small businesses are capable of fulfilling them. GSA says a majority of schedule orders fall in that range, but it argues that other provisions of law exempt them from set-aside requirements. The Government Accountability Office dismissed Espinoza’s protest over the GSA exemption on the grounds that he did not have standing because he is not a schedule holder. SBA sided with Espinoza in a legal opinion that found no basis for excluding schedule orders from set-aside requirements. (For a legal analysis of the issue, see separate story.) Espinoza has also protested to GAO over the FAR exemption for overseas contracts. He says U.S. government installations overseas, such as embassies and military bases, award about $20 billion in contracts each year. GAO has asked SBA for a legal opinion on the overseas exemption. In a letter to Espinoza, OFPP Deputy Administrator Robert Burton said the agency will rule on the exemptions by January 14. The office has the authority to overturn them. The House has passed legislation expressing its opinion that GSA schedule orders should be set aside, but the resolution is not binding. A pending Senate bill would require set-asides on the schedules. Expinoza, who heads a Florida exercise-equipment firm, has won backing from several small business advocates in his drive to overturn the exemptions. Hank Wilfong, president of the National Association of Small Disadvantaged Businesses, said the exemptions are examples of “the unfair and unethical influence of regulations written with no statutory basis which abuse the rights of small and minority businesses and the wishes of Congress.”