Feds offer disaster help via contracts |
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Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:21
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WASHINGTON (AFX) - The General Services Administration, the main buying arm for the federal government, said Thursday it is offering state and local governments the opportunity to buy products and services off of federal contracts for disaster relief and recovery.Josh Sawislak, senior adviser to GSA administrator Lurita Doan, said the agency has published an interim rule in the Federal Register that allows state and municipal access to federal contracts specifically for disaster relief, homeland security and wildland fire and equipment.He said states and municipalities will benefit from the federally negotiated prices and have the opportunity to buy from vendors across the nation. Before this change, state and local officials had little access to federal contracts, he said.GSA officials must now modify each individual vendor contract to allow them to sell to states and municipalities, a process which could take up to two months.Since the program is voluntary, the agency is not forcing vendors to alter their contracts, but Sawislak said vendors support the change.'I have talked to a number of folks in the industry associations and companies and they are very excited about this and looking forward to offering goods and services to state and local governments,' he said.The agency has a total of 18,000 contracts offering more than 10 million products and services. It is unclear how many of these 10 million would be available to state and local governments at first, but GSA officials said the intent is to eventually expand state and local access to all of them.Sawislak said there is a 60-day comment period for the interim rule change. After the agency receives comments, it may revise the rule before it becomes final.GSA has been working with the Homeland Security Department and other agencies to put the program in place.Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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