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Municipalities, which include Fire Companies and Police Stations, are now eligible to purchase using GSA pricing. According to H.R. 3179, the "Local Preparedness Acquisition Act," which authorizes the use of Federal supply schedules by State, local, and tribal governments for acquisition of law enforcement and security-related items, including firefighting and rescue equipment;

H.R. 3179 would allow state, local, and tribal governments to purchase more goods and services at discount prices through federal supply schedules. Under current law, those governments may purchase a variety of information technology through the federal supply schedules. This legislation would expand the cooperative purchasing program to include specified supplies and services for law enforcement, fire fighting, and other security activities.

Under the bill, any purchases of such supplies and services would be an exchange between state, local, and tribal governments and commercial suppliers. However, the General Services Administration (GSA) charges a 0.75 percent fee on all sales to recover the procurement and administrative costs of operating the supply schedule program. Based on information from GSA regarding the current cooperative program with those governments for information technology services and the anticipated demand under the expanded program, CBO estimates that increasing the number of purchases would increase offsetting collections by about $2 million a year. Because such fees are spent by GSA, the net budgetary impactof the bill would be negligible.