Contracting Policy and Guidance

FAR

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is a set of rules that govern how the federal government buys goods and services. The FAR is the primary regulation for the Executive Branch, and is jointly issued by the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and NASA. 

HHSAR

The Health and Human Services Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR) is a set of policies and procedures that govern the acquisition process for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The HHSAR is managed by the HHS Office of Acquisitions and is issued in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) as chapter 3 of title 48. 

Category Management

Category Management is the practice of buying common goods and services as an organized enterprise in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of acquisition activities. Category Management helps organizations buy smarter for common goods and services such as office supplies, travel and lodging, housekeeping services, and more. For the government, this means buying like an enterprise to get more value and savings by identifying core areas - categories of spend, using data to consolidate and reduce contracts when possible, better managing suppliers and demand, and reducing the total cost of ownership. 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum M-19-13 requires agencies to carry out a set of tailored management actions and provide updates on these management actions to evaluate their progress in bringing common spending under management.   

Contractors interested in doing business with the government are encouraged to visit the GSA Acquisition Gateway to become more familiar with category management and research existing Best In Class Vehicles.

CMS awards IDIQ and BPAs to support our specific mission needs.  Some of these vehicles have been designated as Tier 1 under Category Management.  See the CMS IDIQ /BPA list (XLSX) for a full list of current CMS contract vehicles.