Meeting — March 19, 2024

The GSA Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Industry Partnerships Subcommittee convened for a public meeting at 3:00 PM on March 19, 2024, virtually via Zoom, with Kristin Seaver, Chair, and Farad Ali, Co-Chair, presiding.

In accordance with FACA, as amended, 5 U.S.C. App 2, the meeting was open to the public from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EST.

Meeting agenda

Allotted Time	Topic	Presenter(s)
3:00 PM - 3:05 PM	Call to Order Roll Call and Quorum	Boris Arratia, Designated Federal Officer
3:05 PM - 3:10 PM	Introductory Remarks Opening Statement	Kristin Seaver, Chair Farad Ali, Co-Chair
3:10 PM - 4:50 PM	Subcommittee Business	Subcommittee Members
4:50 PM - 4:55 PM	Public Comments	Public Participants
4:55 PM - 5:00 PM	Closing Remarks Summary Next Steps Adjourn	Kristin Seaver, Chair Farad Ali, Co-Chair Boris Arratia, Designated Federal Officer

Committee Members Present:

Kristin Seaver, Chairman — General Dynamics Information Technology
Farad Ali, Co-Chair — Asociar LLC
Denise Bailey — Philadelphia International Airport
Nigel Stephens — U.S. Black Chambers of Commerce
Keith Tillage — Tillage Construction LLC
David Wagger — Institute of Scap Recycling Industries
Kimberly Wise White — American Chemistry Council
Troy Cribb — Partnership for Public Service

Absent: Gail Bassette, Susan Lorenz-Fisher, Mamie Mallory, Deryl McKissack, Stacy Smedley

Guest Speakers & Presenters: n/a

GSA Staff Present:

Boris Arratia — Designated Federal Officer
Stephanie Hardison — Deputy Designated Federal Officer
David Cochennic — GAP FAC Support
Bianca McIntosh — GAP FAC Support
Jenny Bohan — Closed Captioner
Debra Lakebrink — ASL Interpreter
Laura Braucht — ASL Interpreter

Call to order

Boris Arratia, Designated Federal Officer, opened the public meeting by welcoming the group before reminding the public that there will be time for comments and statements at the end of the meeting. Roll call was performed before the meeting was turned over to Chair, Kristin Seaver and Co-Chair Farad Ali.

Welcome and opening remarks

Kristin Seaver discussed formulating recommendations for the May Industry Partnerships Subcommittee Meeting. The meeting will initially be open for public comment and then will eventually close.

Boris Arratia mentioned that the May subcommittee meeting will focus on two things:

• Discuss the journey of the committee from beginning to present. This includes explaining the process of starting and the progress the committee has made including the past two recommendation reports.
• As far as recommendations are concerned, each of the subcommittees are linking the next set of recommendations to the work that has already been done in the past.

Also GSA is looking at the last set of recommendations provided in December and are working through different areas that could be put out there for agency engagement. There is outreach being done to different groups that are interested in the work of the committee. Some groups include:

• Coalition for Government Procurement Green Committee
• National Contract Management Association (NCMA)

Troy Cribbs asked about the common threads seen across the three subcommittees concerning data, and how to improve that related to sustainability. Kristin Seaver responded that the subcommittee could probably help identify some issues, concerns, questions around data. Although data has not been looked into as a recommendation, the focus has been mainly on emerging entrants and innovation. One of the concerns is if data is really measuring the desires and needs of the committee along with validating the data standards and consistency.

Subcommittee business

David Wagger mentioned having a simplistic approach in regards to information that vendors need to provide to GSA to get their products a part of the green procurement compilation. Where the intersection lies of all three committees, IPS, Acquisition Workforce, and Policy of practice is:

• Capture that information on GSA products in a system so that the procurement officials can make the best informed choice given the information that they have.
• Perform inputting of data, outputting of data, and then analysis of data.

Nigel Stephens mentioned in regards to data, leverage how the HUBzone program uses data is helpful. Also leverage existing structure in order to streamline HUBzone program access and utilization and how to make it easier for GSA and partners to access individuals linked to similar programs.

Kristin Seaver said that she would like to explore the interest of AI. Troy Cribbs mentioned that one of the recommendations from the December subcommittee meeting was that GSA should pull together a working group on AI.

Nigel Stephens mentioned that he read an article about the use of AI in federal procurement on whether or not it’s reviewing RFPs. He recommends the creation of a pilot for AI to identify, categorize the data to be used by the procurement officers.

Kristin Seaver responded by stating that the focus would be emerging entrants.

Nigel Stephens mentioned that the topic is easy for the contracting officers and procurement officials to navigate. Kirstin mentioned that the next topic would focus on the two sessions held with the GSA fleet.

Boris Arratia mentioned that there is a public meeting with some GSA experts to discuss sustainability data later that week. He also mentioned that the fleet organization of GSA has two great leaders, Len and George and they have been very active in sustainability for several years now.

Kristin Seaver said that they were able to share a lot of insights around best practices to identify and engage with innovative new entrance and emerging technology. Kirstin also mentioned the meeting talked about the cost of pulling together the proposals and things needed for government contracts, and understanding the rules of engagement. Also how well contracts are capitalized, understanding what the government is actually buying, and the need.

Nigel Stephens mentioned that the government is buying in a timely fashion and some of the conferences offer general information on RFPs. One concern is that large businesses get invited to the Federal Government to participate in strategies and how to resolve their problems. Small businesses get invited to get briefed on a procurement opportunity in order to chase a contract. Nigel proposes if the government is going to invite innovative businesses to increase the number of companies in the supply chain around climate change and sustainability, there needs to be a way to engage companies to get access to the decision-makers around the implementation of the programs where this committee is trying to help them solve problems.

Keith Tillage discovered that RFP hits the public later than expected. The RFP has no clear outlined format as far as its writers being onboarded. The question remains, how can they get engaged either directly with the Federal Government or with the person(s) helping them solve the problem.

Kristin Seaver mentioned that the recommendations and fleet meeting focused on how to identify, engage, and onboard small and emerging companies.

Nigel Stephens suggests if the goal is to bring more businesses to the table, some of these contracts must be broken into smaller pieces that are very targeted around that innovation or niche. This will allow the challenges being heard to have a proposed innovative solution.

Kristin Seaver said in regards to the fleet conversation that the main discussion was around innovative technology and who the vehicle manufacturers are, the leading companies, and how can the committee help them to be innovative.

Nigel Stephens responds by saying that there are only a few car manufacturers in America to buy from, meaning the subcontracting goals need to be robust and enforced. David Wagger agrees that the fleet might not have been the best example of being innovative due to the few vehicles bought by the government versus a rental company.

Kirstin Seaver also discussed that the fleet meeting reviewed who is offering grants and being able to point people in the direction of those offering grants or the actual vehicle manufacturer.

Boris Arratia commended this subcommittee because it has a network of universities to discuss and find new ideas as they are emerging. The successful aspect of this committee includes being able to connect people to each other, non traditionally. The onboarding process still needs to be refined in a consistent way for the different committees.

Kirstin Seaver mentioned that when attracting innovative, new, and emerging companies, being intentional is the best approach. Nigel recommends creating an avenue that would designate a lower fee by the type of product selected. This can be likened to a navigator style program that sends federal representatives to speak with leaders on innovative ideas.

Farad Ali recommended to explore how to engage the innovators to contract with GSA. The GSA fleet talked about directing interested ones on the industry side versus government. GSA fleet also mentioned agencies such as DOD, and EPA that have designated people to issue grants. It was also suggested to explore the small business programs that already exist.

Boris Arratia inquired on helping vendors to make sure there is a path for success, particularly if a vendor is providing an exceptional product or service. The vendors should be getting the investment that was paid for.

Kristin Seaver recommended possibly having GSA conduct a mapping exercise of what products GSA owns and identify any gaps in the life cycle of the market of the business and finding new entrants. GSA fleet mentioned that a huge percent of vehicles purchased are not produced in the United States. Setting regulations for cars purchased can affect the market tremendously. Some things that come to mind are:

• Regular elation and administrative objectives set for vehicles
• Exploring the sense of urgency around protecting the planet

Nigel Stephens stated that the goal is to create an ecosystem in which climate change and sustainability patterns are the norm.

Boris Arratia recommended having a better relationship management office for sustainability that has a cross functional representative from different offices to help pull together those vendors for different products or services. The focus can be on supply chain resiliency by looking at gaps in the supply chain resiliency whether it’s by location, and then going out and finding vendors in those locations.

For example if there is a supply chain system in flood zones, the goal is to have the suppliers in non peak flood zones. Also connecting with a sustainability center which is required for the policy and practice.

Kristin Seaver agrees that this recommendation is not really addressing the whole lifecycle, but addressing the front end of the life cycle. She also recommends having resources already dedicated to the life cycle management that work together from different cross functional areas.

Farad Ali states that the focus should be on climate sustainability and green industry partners. The key is how to leverage climate sustainability through improving industry partnerships particularly with people who are less engaged. Also, around climate and sustainability, the goal is to promote connectivity but have industry knowledge of all these diverse groups and innovative groups involved in the same mission.

Kristin Seaver would like to explore how to bring in major companies to solve the climate sustainability issues and how to get other groups of people involved. The RFP currently is created before bringing in major companies. The goal is to have a simplistic approach along with thinking on a broad spectrum on how to come up with creative solutions and recommendations based on GSA needs.

Public comments

The subcommittee opened the discussion to the public however there were no comments or questions.

Closing remarks

Farad thanked the committee members for their active participation and for bringing today’s speakers to the meeting.

Boris adjourned the meeting at 5:00 P.M. ET.

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete.

Digitally signed by Kristin Seaver 8/26/2024
Kristin Seaver
Chairperson
GAP FAC Industry Partnerships Subcommittee

Digitally signed by Farad Ali 8/23/2024
Farad Ali
Co—Chairperson
GAP FAC Industry Partnerships Subcommittee