WASHINGTON — The General Services Administration has asked another federal agency to either terminate or justify all of its “non-essential” consulting contracts.
In a Thursday letter acting GSA administrator Stephen Ehikian said the GSA “has taken the first steps in a Government-wide initiative to eliminate non-essential consulting contracts,” which the letter defines as “any contract that merely generates a report, research, coaching, or an artifact.”
The letter represents the Trump administration’s latest salvo in a broad assault on federal spending, which has included an attempt to freeze all federal financial assistance grants, an effort to push federal employees into retirement, and the wholesale downsizing of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Many of the administration’s early moves have been stymied by lawsuits alleging the administration has overstepped its authority, since the Constitution gives federal spending decisions to Congress, not the president.
HuffPost obtained the GSA letter from a source in a different federal agency who said they were “shocked” GSA would demand such information from other agencies. The GSA manages procurement, IT and real estate for the federal government. It’s not clear if other agencies received the same letter, though it was addressed to “Agency Head” rather then a specific official.
The letter said GSA had identified contracts, enclosed in a spreadsheet, that appeared to be nonessential and asked the agency if it planned to terminate them, and if not, to provide a sentence “explaining why the consulting contract(s) is essential for your agency to fulfill its statutory purposes.” The letter also requests “the name of the person who represents that the consulting contract is essential.”
The GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to its general media inquiry email address.
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