Contracting With the U.S. Government

If you sell a product, or provide a service, the U.S. Government probably buys it or needs it. Every year government purchases of goods and services from private contractors amounts to almost 1 Trillion Dollars. But, how do you do it? Where do you start? As in the private sector, when you want to sell something to a business, you go see the Purchasing Agent first.

The General Services Administration (GSA):
The Government's Purchasing Agent

The General Services Administration (GSA) is the Federal Government's purchasing agent. Whether an agency is ordering paper clips or pile driving, they order through the GSA.

Contracting Opportunities with the Federal Government
Explains how the GSA buys goods and services, who they buy for, and who they buy from. A great place to start, this page contains a list of regionally located GSA Small Business Centers where real people can answer your questions, and get you registered as a GSA vendor.

The purchasing rules and regulations under which the GSA, agency buyers, and private vendors are contained in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). You can download the FAR from the link to the left, and you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the .PDF file. Why, look! Here's Acrobat now. It's free.

Download Free Adobe Acrobat Reader

Become a GSA Registered Vendor
The automated government purchasing system is designed to help agency buyers select from a list of GSA Registered Vendors. Clearly, it is to your advantage to be one of those. Becoming a GSA Registered Vendor is easy. Just fill out the online GSA Vendor Registration Form. You will need to know the SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) Code for your product or service. A good, keyword-searchable Index to SIC Codes is from the Global-Protrade company.

Small / Minority Owned Business Emphasis
Increasingly, government agencies are encouraged to contract with small businesses and minority-owned businesses. The GSA's Office of Enterprise Development has been established to assist these businesses in contracting with the government.

Find Who's Buying What, When?
All government agency bids for goods or services are published in "Commerce Business Daily" the CBD, from the Government Printing Office (GPO). The CBD lists procurements (bid proposals), contract awards, sales of government property, and other special notices. A new edition is published each business day and will contain from 500-1,000 notices. Generally, all federal agencies are required to announce all bid or contract actions amounting to over $25,000 in the CBD. Thus, it is by far the best source of government contract information.

Besides at least two non-government Web-based services listed later, the GPO itself maintains the Commerce Business Daily home page where you can Browse the CBD Daily Listings, run a standard search of the CBD, or run a fielded search of the CBD. As an example, going to the standard search form and entering the word, "plumbing" will return all standing bids for plumbing services and plumbing-related products. The "fielded" search helps you filter out bids that don't apply to your business.

No matter how you search the CBD, it helps if you know the CBD "Service or Supply Code" for your products or services. Now this is not the same as your SIC Code which you need to become a GSA registered vendor. Your Service or Supply Code only apply to searching and working with the CBD. The best listing of these CBD Codes can be found on the STAT-USA site. They list Service Codes for businesses providing services, and Supply Codes for vendors of specific products.

Results of Searching the CBD

The results of your search of the CBD will produce a listing of outstanding bids and awarded contracts. For example, I ran a simple search on the word "plumbing," and got 40 listings. Here's part of one:

PART: U.S. GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENTS
SUBPART: SUPPLIES, EQUIPMENT AND MATERIAL
CLASSCOD: 45--Plumbing, Heating and Sanitation Equipment
OFFADD: Defense Industrial Supply Center, 700 Robbins Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111-5096
SUBJECT: 45--ATOMIZER ASSEMBLY
SOL SP056098Q3869
DUE 112897
POC Contracting Officer:Judy Nicastro/WAC08/(215)697-4008,Buyer:Cynthia Watson/WAC12/(215)697-2944
DESC: PR-NO YPI97282001915, NSN 4530-01-197-7168, Atomizer Assembly, stainless steel, 25 9/16 inches long, internal tube, end cap, and nozzle. Designed for high-grade hydrocarbon fuels. Per... (... lots cut out by me ...)
...the final contract award price will be based upon a combination of price and delivery as described in section M of this solicitation. To obtain a copy of this solicitation please fax request to (215)697-6333, X1462, X2978.
CITE: (W-301 SN138004)

So, in the sample above, the Defense Industrial Supply Center (OFFADD:) wants an Atomizer Assembly (SUBJECT:). The POC: (Point of Contact) tells you who to send your proposal to, or contact with questions, and DUE: is the date (mmddyy) by which your proposal must be received. Finally, the DESC: section will contain specifications, and other details of the contract.

Some listings will even include Web links allowing you to submit your bid online, or via email!

You will also encounter lots of abbreviations and acronyms in the CBD listings. Federal Marketplace, one of the non-government Web-based CBD services, offers this nice list of CBD abbreviations.

Just to prove that the government does, indeed, buy most everything, I searched CBD on "basketball" and found four open contracts for intramural officiating services. Hey, I got a whistle!

Non-Government Internet Sources of CBD Information

Federal Marketplace
Uses the latest Oracle 7 database technology allowing for contextual searching of the CBD listing. You can run searches for free, and they have listings of SIC Codes, Product/Service Codes, and CBD Abbreviations. Still on the "free" level, you can choose to search or browse the CBD, and select only new proposals, awards, or special notices. A nice feature. Federal Marketplace also offers fee-based, subscriber-only, extended searching and marketing functions described on their Web site. One drawback to Federal Data, however, is that its searches are, frankly, slow.

The Procurement Assistance Jumpstation
from Federal Marketplace, features over 250 links to government contracting Internet resources. And, their State and Local Procurement Jumpstation supplies over 150 state and local government contracting sites.

Leasing Real Estate to the Federal Government
From residential to heavy industrial, the U.S. Government leases building space all over the United States. If you are interested in having Uncle Sam as a tenant, check the GSA's listings of government leasing opportunities.