The news of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s announcement that the Pentagon will dissolve the U.S. Joint Forces Command and cut thousands of defense contractors from DoD payroll sparked opinions ranging from outrage to full fledged support.

During EZGSA's weekly production meetings, a few items continue to pop up time and again. One issue in particular should be of interest to two different classes of our clients: those who are in the midst of working on their GSA Schedule proposals as well as those who have their proposals already submitted to GSA but not awarded. This issue is turnaround time from submission to award at the GSA acquisition offices. The current economic climate is being blamed for many things, but most analysts believe that as business owners experience difficulty selling to the commercial marketplace, they turn to government buyers. Of course, the GSA Schedules promote the most efficient method of selling to the federal government, and subsequently, submissions to all GSA acquisition centers have increased tremendously. We wanted to update you about the following trends in some of the various GSA acquisition centers so that you can be better prepared for a realistic timeline with regard to your own submission.