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Gruenbaum leaving as GSA FAS commissioner

GSA Administrator Ed Forst said Laura Stanton will be acting FAS commissioner until a new permanent one is hired.

Jason Miller@jmillerWFED

April 17, 2026 11:34 am

2 min read

Josh Gruenbaum, the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration since January 2025, is leaving his position.

GSA has named FAS Deputy Commissioner Laura Stanton as the acting commissioner, according to an email sent by GSA Administrator Ed Forst.

In the email, obtained by Federal News Network, Forst said Stanton will serve as acting commissioner starting today until a permanent one is hired.

A GSA spokesperson confirmed Stanton is acting FAS commissioner now, but didn’t offer any details about where Gruenbaum is going next.

Forst’s email did not mention Gruenbaum.

“With Laura at the helm, I am confident that FAS will continue to build upon the significant accomplishments achieved over the last 15 months of President Trump’s administration,” Forst wrote.

Stanton has been with GSA for almost 29 years, starting as a national management intern in 1997 and rising to become deputy commissioner of FAS in April.

Several former GSA executives and others in the federal community praised GSA for putting Stanton in the acting position.

To many, Gruenbaum leaving GSA came as no surprise. He has been focused on non-GSA issues for much of the last six-plus months, whether in Israel or Europe, working on foreign affairs issues.

Sources say there has been no specific mention of where Gruenbaum is heading next, but several sources predict it’s probably to work out of the White House on related foreign affairs issues.

Gruenbaum joined GSA without previous government experience, but it was clear from the beginning he sought to shake things up.

He led efforts to scrutinize federal contractors, from consultants to value-added resellers. He sent four rounds of letters collecting data and information about prices and pushing for more outcome-based contracting.

One of his most controversial efforts has been the focus on the reseller market, seeking to limit markups to 5%. That idea received strong pushback inside and out of the government.

While industry says little direct changes came from these data calls, Gruenbaum and GSA used some of this data to help establish the OneGov strategy. GSA now has more than 20 contracts with technology vendors under OneGov that standardizes terms and conditions and reduces prices for common IT products and services.

GSA says agencies have saved or avoided spending more than $1.1 billion through OneGov and other related consolidation initiatives. GSA says at least 16 CFO Act agencies have taken advantage of OneGov contracts.