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Published: 2005

Total Pages: 0

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Congress enacted the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act in 1949 to provide for an "economical and efficient system" for the Federal Government's management of real property, procurement, administrative services, and records. This act, which established the General Services Administration (GSA), authorized the GSA Administrator to procure and distribute supplies and services needed by federal agencies "in the proper discharge of their responsibilities." To procure these goods and services, the act transferred to the GSA Administrator authority to oversee and control the General Supply Fund, a special U.S. Treasury account. Within GSA, the GSA Administrator established the Federal Supply Service (FSS) to acquire goods and services for federal agencies through the fund. In January 2004, GSA's Inspector General reported that certain Federal Technology Service (FTS) procurement specialists acquired goods and services through the Information Technology Fund in a manner inconsistent with the fund's congressionally authorized procedures. To improve the accountability of both FSS and FTS acquisitions, GSA Administrator Stephen Perry proposed reorganizing the two services into a unified acquisitions service in the President's FY2006 GSA budget request. While the GSA Administrator can, through his discretionary authority, approve an agency reorganization without congressional approval, legislation is needed to authorize the creation of a General Services Fund to replace the existing congressionally authorized FSS/FTS funding structure. On May 4, 2005, Representatives Tom Davis and Duncan Hunter introduced H.R. 2066, the General Services Administration Modernization Act, to authorize an Acquisition Services Fund in the U.S. Treasury, and to statutorily establish GSA's Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) to ensure that any structural reforms would be "memorialized in GSA's organic legislation."