Richard Beutel, a senior researcher at the Baroni Center for Government Contracting, explains how the FAS reorganization will impact federal buying.
By all outward appearances, the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service has long served as the government’s backbone — managing schedules, overseeing contracts, and keeping procurement operations running smoothly. But the newly unveiled “FAS 2.0” reorganization, expected to launch the week of May 4, signals something far more ambitious: a deliberate move away from simple contract administration toward centralized, portfolio-level oversight of how the federal government purchases technology.
This isn’t just a reshuffling of roles. It’s a fundamental redefinition of purpose.
This consolidation reflects a clear philosophical shift. FAS 2.0, now rebranded as Acquisition Solutions Development/Create, is no longer positioning itself as a neutral marketplace facilitator. Instead, it is evolving into a strategic buyer — one with the authority, and increasingly the data, to shape demand, standardize contract terms, and influence pricing across the entire federal enterprise.
For years, initiatives like category management and the IT Vendor Management Office functioned as add-ons layered over existing contracting structures. ASD/Create integrates them directly into the organization’s core. The message is unmistakable: portfolio management is now the guiding principle of federal acquisition.
Leadership in transition
None of this happens in isolation. The reorganization arrives during a period of significant leadership change. Josh Gruenbaum, who guided FAS through the early months of the current administration’s procurement reform efforts, has announced his apparent intention to step down from his current role.
Laura Stanton — a seasoned GSA veteran with decades of organizational experience and deep expertise in IT category management — has stepped in as acting commissioner. Stanton’s institutional knowledge and proven track record in large-scale IT procurement make her ideally suited to lead ASD/Create from concept to reality.
Alongside her, Larry Hale, a key figure throughout the FAS 2.0 planning process, currently serves as assistant commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Category. Hale’s extensive experience bridging acquisition, technology, and mission needs will be essential as category management transitions from an overlay function to a core operating principle. We also anticipate that industry veteran and acquisition expert Larry Allen, GSA’s associate administrator in the Office of Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, will play a critical role going forward.
This is a moment of both continuity and renewal. Gruenbaum helped lay the groundwork for transformation; Stanton and Hale now have the mandate to deliver it. Their leadership will determine whether ASD/Create becomes another bureaucratic exercise or the lasting transformation of federal buying power it promises to be.
ASD/Create will be structured around three major program offices — the Office of Mission Delivery (OMD), the Office of Indefinite Delivery Vehicle Acquisition Management, and the Office of Category Management.
Data, control, and the end of fragmentation
The newly established Office of Mission Delivery is particularly telling. Led by GSA veteran Jack Tekus, this program office will consist of five distinct service centers covering portfolio management, stakeholder engagement, workforce development, analytics, and systems. Together, these five centers form what can only be described as a procurement operating system — and this is where the real transformation lies.
The federal government has long struggled with fragmented purchasing practices, inconsistent pricing, and limited visibility into what agencies actually buy. By centralizing business systems, analytics, and stakeholder engagement, ASD/Create is building the infrastructure needed to benchmark pricing across agencies, identify duplicative or unnecessary contracts, standardize acquisition pathways, and integrate procurement data with financial and performance systems.
The second new ASD/Create program office is the Office of Indefinite Delivery Vehicle Acquisition Management. Under the leadership of Cheryl Thornton-Cameron, this office consolidates the multiple award schedule (MAS), non-MAS contract vehicles, compliance functions, cyber and supply chain risk management, and warrant authority under one roof.
This represents a profound shift. Historically, MAS operated with a degree of autonomy, while other indefinite delivery vehicles were managed in separate silos. Under ASD/Create, they are unified under a single governance structure.
The practical impact will be greater standardization of contract terms, tighter pricing oversight, centralized enforcement of compliance rules, and the integration of cybersecurity and supply chain risk into core acquisition decisions.
The inclusion of a dedicated cyber-supply chain risk management function within this program office is especially noteworthy. It reflects the growing convergence of procurement and national security policy — an evolution driven by executive actions such as Executive Order 14028, “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity,” and subsequent directives.
As industry closely watches the proposed consolidation and merger of the successful NASA SEWP and NITAAC governmentwide acquisition contract (GWAC) programs, this operating element appears purpose-built to absorb these offices into GSA seamlessly and fully functional.
Category management comes of age
The third pillar of ASD/Create is the Office of Category Management. This office solidifies FAS 2.0’s role as the government’s strategic sourcing authority. Joel Lundy, a well-respected and experienced GSA leader, brings deep expertise to the operations and challenges posed by category management principles.
With the ITVMO and the IT category fully embedded, FAS now has the institutional architecture to negotiate enterprise-wide software agreements, standardize licensing and data rights terms, reduce duplicative spending across agencies, and drive adoption of preferred solutions.
All of this bodes well for the continued viability and future expansion of the much-discussed OneGov initiative, led by the respected Kyra Stewart of the ITVMO. The Office of Category Management is the natural extension of the OneGov concept — treating the federal government not as thousands of independent buyers, but as a single, coordinated customer. If executed aggressively, this model will compress vendor margins, reduce channel fragmentation, and shift bargaining power toward the government — precisely where it belongs when the customer is the American taxpayer.
What this means for industry
For vendors — particularly value-added resellers and intermediaries — the message is clear. The era of loosely governed, transaction-based reselling is coming to a close. ASD/Create’s emphasis on analytics,
Compliance standards and centrally managed pricing will make it harder and harder to justify adding markups that aren’t backed by any real, proven value.
At the same time, the reorganization opens the door for companies that can step up and take a more strategic role—handling system integration across multiple vendors, driving DevSecOps and cloud deployments, managing cybersecurity compliance and supply chain integrity, and overseeing the full lifecycle of complex technology rollouts.
In short, the role of middlemen in government contracting isn’t going away—it’s being transformed. The companies that succeed will be those that offer real, meaningful differentiation rooted in deep expertise, strong security, and measurable results, rather than simply repackaging and passing along products. The government is making its position clear: it’s ready to pay for genuine value, but it will no longer foot the bill for resellers who add nothing to the transaction.
The key takeaway
ASD/Create may not grab attention the way new satellites or major weapons programs do. But within the behind-the-scenes machinery of federal procurement—where hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year—it could turn out to be one of the most significant changes in how the government buys technology.
For the private sector, the message is clear: evolve, deliver real value, or risk being left out. For taxpayers and the agencies they support, the promise is a purchasing process that is smarter, more secure, and more efficient. If ASD/Create is carried out with the rigor this new structure suggests, the federal government will finally operate as the sophisticated, high-stakes buyer it was always meant to be.
The transformation is already in motion. The real question now is whether industry—and the government itself—will step up to the challenge.
Richard Beutel is a senior researcher at the George Mason Baroni Center for Government Contracting and the founder of Cyrrus Analytics LLC. During his time as a congressional staffer, Rich authored the original Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) and is widely recognized as a national authority on IT acquisition management and cloud policy, with 25 years of private sector experience and more than a decade on Capitol Hill focused on IT procurement issues. The views expressed in this article are his own.
Copyright
© 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
