Similarly, restrictions on contractors' beating their own schedule prices prevented agencies from negotiating better bargains. Both of these constraints are history. In fact, agencies are now expected to get contractors to reduce their prices. Moreover, they can buy as much product and service as they want. It is a win-win arrangement for both government and industry.
Contractors have an easy vehicle for making a sale.
Agencies take advantage of GSA's services to meet their needs quickly and effectively. More buyers could mean reduced administrative fees, more sales for contractors and better prices for agencies. That was the thinking behind Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review recommendation to initiate the Cooperative Purchasing program and to open the schedules up to more users. Congress agreed in the 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, but then had second thoughts, delaying implementation until the General Accounting Office studied the effects of this expansion. In spite of a February GAO report, which found no show-stopper problems with the proposal, its future is shaky.