On April 9, 2025, the Center for Indian Country Development published an interesting report on the impact of contract consolidation/bundling by the federal government on Native-owned government contractors.

In Executive Order Eliminating Waste and Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Consolidating Procurement, President Trump directed federal agencies to have the General Services Administration (GSA) “conduct domestic procurement with respect to common goods and services for the agency.” Under the Category Management Leadership Council, federal procurement has been divided into ten categories:

1. 1. 1. Facilities & Construction
      2. Professional Services
      3. IT
      4. Medical
      5. Transportation & Logistics
      6. Industrial Products & Services (basic materials, hardware, and tools)
      7. Travel
      8. Security & Protection
      9. Human Capital (compensation and benefits, recruiting, and employee relations)
      10. Office Management (furniture and office management products)

As procurement for some or all of these categories is consolidated into the GSA for procurement, Native-owned contractors and small business contractors may see adverse effects on their ability to obtain contracts for or otherwise participate in these areas of work. As such, the Center for Indian Country Development’s report on the effect of category management on Native-owned entities is timely and informative.

The Center for Indian Country Development examined data on prime contracts and found that:

On the one hand, Native entity enterprises have increasingly earned consolidated contracts over time, with revenue from these contracts reaching a total of $736.6 million in 2023, up from $22.7 million in 2010. On the other hand, the data show that Native entity enterprises received only a tiny share—2.6 percent—of prime consolidated contract awards from 2010 through 2023, even as the number of Native entity enterprises participating in federal contracting grew.

Diving into the data, the Center for Indian Country Development found that the use of consolidated contracts has significantly increased over time, while the number of small businesses participating in federal contracting has decreased:

The Center for Indian Country Development also found that Native-owned entities had a very small share of consolidated contracts:

Native entity enterprises receive only a tiny share of all consolidated contracts. Of the 51,251,210 federal contracts awarded from 2010 through 2023, only 513,852, or 1.0 percent, were awarded to Native entity enterprises. During the same period, agencies awarded 856,099 consolidated contracts; of those, Native entity enterprises received 22,420, or 2.6 percent. Native entity enterprises received a smaller share of bundled contract awards: of 182,446 bundled contracts over this period, Native entity enterprises only received 55, or 0.03 percent.

Native entity enterprises’ dollar share of consolidated contract awards has grown since 2010, when they received 0.6 percent of consolidated contract dollars, or $22.7 million. By 2023, Native entity enterprises earned 4.6 percent of the consolidated contract dollars awarded that year, totaling $736.6 million.

The Center for Indian Country Development did find that Native-owned entities had success in wining consolidated contracts across a broad array of sectors:

The Department of Defense led the use of consolidated contracts:

The Center for Indian Country Development’s study and data demonstrate the risk that greater consolidation of federal procurement at the GSA level poses to Native-owned entities, and small businesses in general. If existing requirements are only transferred to the GSA for management, there might be a reduced effect on Native-owned contractors and small businesses. If the transfer of federal procurement to the GSA results in greater bundling and consolidation, Native-owned contractors and small businesses may see a reduced opportunity to compete for federal contracts. At the very least, the move to consolidation of contracts with the GSA suggests that Native-owned entities and small businesses should focus on ensuring they have a place on GSA schedules and GSA contract vehicles, to retain or improve their access to federal procurement options.

This article summarizes aspects of the law. This article does not constitute legal advice. For legal advice regarding your situation, you should contact an attorney.