Federal procurement flips to lowest cost—unless GSA says otherwise
S. 2118 — Value Over Cost Act of 2025 · Filed by Tim Scott (R-SC) · Introduced Jun 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends federal procurement rules for the General Services Administration's multiple award schedule program (used by federal agencies to buy goods and services). It changes the default procurement standard from 'best value' to 'lowest overall cost,' but allows the GSA Administrator to override this and use 'best value' procurement when deemed necessary for the federal government's interests. The bill applies to both civilian and defense contracts.
Why we flagged it
The bill reorders the hierarchy of procurement criteria for federal contracts, making cost the primary driver and best value secondary. This is a structural change to how federal agencies select vendors, not a spending authorization or industry carve-out.
What the text implies
- Vendors offering lowest cost may win contracts even if their products/services have higher total cost of ownership (maintenance, replacement, downtime), shifting hidden costs to agencies and taxpayers.
- GSA Administrator discretion to invoke 'best value' exception creates a new decision point that may be subject to political pressure, lobbying, or inconsistent application across contract cycles.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
low-cost vendors and contract manufacturers; high-volume commodity suppliers; offshore manufacturing and outsourcing firms