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The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. government offices, provides transportation and office space to federal employees, and develops government wide cost-minimizing policies, among other management tasks. Its stated mission is to "help federal agencies better serve the public by offering, at best value, superior workplaces, expert solutions, acquisition services and management policies."

Former President Herbert Hoover was asked in 1947 by President Harry Truman to lead a commission to make recommendations to the President and Congress on how to improve the administrative activities of the federal government. One of the recommendations of the commission was the establishment of an "Office of the General Services." This proposed office would combine the responsibilities of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Federal Supply and Office of Contract Settlement, the National Archives Establishment, the Federal Work Agency, and the War Assets Administration. GSA became an independent agency on July 1, 1949, following the passage of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act. General Jess Larson, Administrator of the War Assets Administration, was named as GSA's first Administrator.

GSA employs about 12,000 federal workers and has an annual operating budget around $16 billion, of which approximately 1% is appropriated from tax-payer dollars. GSA oversees $66 billion of procurement annually. It contributes to the management of about $500 billion in U.S. Federal property, divided chiefly among 8,300 owned and leased buildings and a 170,000 vehicle motor pool. Among the real estate assets managed by the GSA is the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, the largest U.S. Federal building after The Pentagon.

GSA's business lines include the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) and the Public Buildings Service (PBS). Other divisions include the Office of Governmentwide Policy, and various Staff Offices, including the Office of Small Business Utilization, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Office of Citizen Services and Communications. The official U.S. government web portal, USA.gov, and the Spanish-language web portal to U.S. government services, GobiernoUSA.gov, are members of the Office of Citizen Services and Communication’s family of websites, which also includes pueblo.gsa.gov (the Federal Citizen Information Center), Kids.gov, ConsumerAction.gov, and WebContent.gov.

The National Archives and Records Administration was also part of GSA until it was made an independent agency in 1985.

GSA recently completed early-outs and buy-outs to reduce staff. It reorganized to merge the Federal Supply Service (FSS) and Federal Technology Service (FTS) business lines into Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). Bush Administration political appointee Stephen A. Perry resigned as GSA Administrator on October 31, 2005. On May 31, 2006, Lurita Doan, also a Bush Administration political appointee, took the oath of office to become the 18th GSA Administrator and the first woman to hold the position.

GSA often assists with procurement work for other government agencies. As part of this effort, it maintains the large GSA Schedule, which other agencies can use to buy goods and services. Think of the GSA schedule as hundreds of pre-negotiated contracts. Procurement managers from government agencies can view these agreements and make purchases from the GSA schedule, knowing that all legal obligations, have been taken care of by GSA.

GSA conducts its business activities through 11 offices (known as GSA Regions) throughout the United States, located in: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Ft. Worth, Kansas City, Missouri, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle (Auburn), and Washington, D.C.

• On December 2006, Lurita Doan proposed cutting the budget of GSA’s Office of the Inspector General for reviewing government contracts for fraud and waste (previous IG audits have allowed the agency to recover billions of dollars of fraudulant contracts). Doan has criticized GSA Inspector General Brian D. Miller for not supporting her effort to implement simpler procedures for contractors. Some IG budget officials, however, viewed IG "streamlining efforts" as problematic. John C. Lebo, formerly with the GSA IG staff, described the changes as troubling and unprecedented. "The Administrator's Office wants to change the IG's overall approach from independently rooting out crime, fraud and abuse, to one in which the OIG is a team player working with GSA."^[1]

• Allegations have been made that the GSA was involved in White House efforts to politicize non-partisan government agencies.^[2] Recent House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearings chaired by Henry Waxman (D-CA) questioned current GSA head, Lurita Doan, regarding meetings and presentations by GSA officials. These meetings used presentation slides which mentioned GOP strategies and tactics for the 2008 Federal Elections. The GSA is prevented from engaging in political activities by the Hatch Act. Republican committee members denounced the investigation as a "witch hunt" intending to smear the Bush administration and the GSA with the appearance of wrongdoing. Doan testified that she had no knowledge of the origin of the presentation slides, and no charges were filed to substantiate the allegations.^[3]

• GSA Official Site