VA Says GSA Partnership is Streamlining Procurement for IT

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the General Services Administration are working to streamline procurement and improve service delivery to veterans, expanding a partnership that affects how the agencies acquire everything from IT systems to professional services.

VA and GSA officials recently met to assess the partnership and identify opportunities for further collaboration. Although the current procurement arrangement is relatively new, VA leaders said they are encouraged by the results so far.

“The relationship is quite good and I just think there’s something important about sitting down and having that conversation directly to make sure things are working the way we imagine,” VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence told GovCIO Media & Research.

An Executive Order’s Impact on Procurement 

The VA and GSA have worked together for decades, however an executive order issued in 2025 changed some of that. The order directs agencies to rely more heavily on GSA for procurement. The order is part of a broader White House effort to overhaul how the federal government acquires goods and services, including AI and IT systems.

The order prompted internal discussions within VA about how to scale and manage procurement activities, Lawrence said. Those discussions led to meetings with GSA officials to determine how the agencies could implement the administration’s directive.

Initially, VA officials questioned whether GSA could support the department’s procurement needs at scale. Lawrence said those concerns eased after GSA demonstrated it could handle the required volume of work.

“GSA’s job is to take friction out of the buying process. Every efficiency we find together frees up time and resources the VA can redirect to the veterans who count on them,” Acting Assistant Commissioner of the Office of IT Category in GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service Larry Hale told GovCIO Media & Research. “This is what good government looks like: two agencies working as one team, focusing on results that ultimately benefit the nation’s veterans.”

Applying Procurement Vehicles to Tech

Lawrence said the VA continues to invest heavily in AI, IT modernization and health technology, with future acquisitions expected to flow through a range of GSA procurement vehicles. Those vehicles can be tailored to meet agency-specific requirements, he said, and both organizations have established processes for adapting them to individual projects.

Lawrence emphasized that while GSA manages the procurement process, VA remains responsible for implementing and overseeing technology projects after contracts are awarded.

Although he has not yet seen a direct increase in AI-related procurement requests flowing through GSA, Lawrence said the department is increasingly using AI to automate administrative work. As those technologies mature, he expects procurement pricing and acquisition models to evolve as well.

Lawrence said one benefit of working with GSA is the variety of contract vehicles available, giving agencies greater flexibility to select the procurement approach that best fits their requirements.

VA and GSA officials also discussed ways to make it easier for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to participate in those contract vehicles.

“I don’t know how they’ll specialize on the cool new stuff like AI and things like that. But, I do know that we want to make sure they have the right vehicles that allow us to pursue a veteran focus as appropriate,” Lawrence said.