FAS 2.0 becomes ASD/Create: GSA’s quiet rewiring of federal procurement power

Richard Beutel, a senior researcher at the Baroni Center for Government Contracting, explains how the FAS reorganization will impact federal buying.

By any outward measure, the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service has long been the government’s workhorse — running schedules, managing contracts and keeping the machinery of procurement moving. But the newly announced “FAS 2.0” reorganization, apparently to be rolled out the week of May 4, signals something more ambitious: A deliberate shift from contract administration to centralized, portfolio-level control over how the federal government buys technology.

This is not a reshuffle. It is a redefinition of mission.

This consolidation reflects a clear philosophical shift. FAS 2.0, which will now be called Acquisition Solutions Development/Create, is no longer positioning itself as a neutral marketplace facilitator. It is becoming a strategic buyer, with the authority — and increasingly, the data — to shape demand, standardize terms and influence pricing across the federal enterprise.

For years, initiatives like category management and the IT Vendor Management Office operated as overlays on top of existing contracting structures. ASD/Create integrates them into the core of the organization. The implication is unmistakable: Portfolio management is now the organizing principle of federal acquisition.

Leadership in transition

None of this happens in a vacuum. The reorganization lands amid significant leadership change. Josh Gruenbaum, who steered FAS through the early months of the current administration’s procurement reform push, has announced his apparent intention to leave his current role.

Laura Stanton — a seasoned GSA veteran with decades of organizational experience and deep roots in IT category management — has stepped in as acting commissioner. Stanton’s institutional knowledge and track record in large-scale IT procurement position her ideally to shepherd ASD/Create from blueprint to reality.

Alongside her, Larry Hale, a guiding light throughout the FAS 2.0 planning process, currently serves as assistant commissioner for the Office of Information Technology Category. Hale’s long experience bridging acquisition, technology and mission needs will be critical as category management moves from overlay to core operating principle. We also expect that industry veteran and acquisition expert Larry Allen, GSA’s associate administrator in the Office of Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, will also play a critical role going forward.

This is a moment of 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 enduring rewiring of federal buying power it promises to be.

ASD/Create will be organized around three key large scale program offices — Office of Mission Delivery (OMD), Office of Indefinite Delivery Vehicle Acquisition Management and Office of Category Management.

Data, control and the end of fragmentation

The newly created Office of Mission Delivery is particularly revealing. Under the leadership of GSA veteran Jack Tekus, this program office will be comprised of five separate service centers, spanning portfolio management, stakeholder engagement, workforce development, analytics and systems. These five service centers collectively form what can only be described as a procurement operating system. This is where the real transformation lies.

The federal government has long struggled with fragmented buying practices, inconsistent pricing and limited visibility into what agencies actually purchase. By centralizing business systems, analytics and stakeholder engagement, ASD/Create is building the infrastructure 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 brings together the multiple award schedule (MAS), non-MAS contract vehicles, compliance functions, cyber and supply chain risk management, and warrant authority under one roof.

This is a profound shift. Historically, MAS operated with a degree of autonomy, while other indefinite delivery vehicles were managed in parallel silos. Under ASD/Create, they are unified under a single governance structure.

The practical effect 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 notable. 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 watches closely the proposed consolidation and merger of the successful NASA SEWP and NITAAC governmentwide acquisition contract (GWACS) programs, this operating element appears purpose built to receive these offices into GSA in good order and fully functioning.

Category management comes of age

The third pillar of ASD/Create is the Office of Category Management. This office cements the role of FAS 2.0 as the government’s strategic sourcing authority. Joel Lundy, a well-respected and seasoned GSA leader, brings deep experience to the operations and challenges posed by category management principles.

With ITVMO and the IT category fully embedded, FAS now has the institutional architecture to negotiate enterprisewide 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 scaling of the much-discussed OneGov initiative, centered under the respected leadership of Kyra Stewart of the ITVMO. The Office of Category Management is the logical 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 and centralized pricing will make it increasingly difficult to justify markups that are not tied to demonstrable value.

At the same time, the reorganization creates new opportunities for firms that can operate at a higher level through systems integration across multi-vendor environments, DevSecOps and cloud implementation, cybersecurity compliance and supply chain assurance and lifecycle management of complex technology deployments.

In other words, the role of intermediaries is not disappearing — it is being redefined. Companies that thrive will be those that deliver genuine differentiation through expertise, security and outcomes rather than simple pass-through reselling. The government is signaling it will pay for value; it will no longer subsidize commoditized middlemen.

The bottom line

ASD/Create is not flashy. It won’t generate headlines like new satellites or major weapons systems. But in the quiet machinery of procurement — where hundreds of billions flow every year — it may prove one of the most consequential shifts in modern federal acquisition.

For industry, the directive is unmistakable: Adapt, add real value, or get left behind. For taxpayers and agency missions, the promise is smarter, more secure and more efficient buying. If ASD/Create executes with the discipline this structure implies, the federal government will finally buy like the sophisticated, high-stakes customer it has always been.

The rewiring is underway. The question now is whether industry — and the government itself — will rise to meet it.

Richard Beutel is a senior researcher at the George Mason Baroni Center for Government Contracting and the founder of Cyrrus Analytics LLC. As a congressional staffer, Rich was the original author of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) and is a nationally recognized expert in IT acquisition management and cloud policy with 25 years of private sector experience and more than a decade on Capitol Hill working on IT acquisition issues. The views expressed in this article are solely his own.

Copyright © 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.