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A Brief History of GSA

GSA was established by President Harry Truman on July 1, 1949, to streamline the administrative work of the federal government.  GSA consolidated the National Archives Establishment, the Federal Works Agency and its Public Buildings Administration, the Bureau of Federal Supply and the Office of Contract Settlement, and the War Assets Administration into one federal agency tasked with administering supplies and providing workplaces for federal employees. 

GSA’s original mission was to dispose of war surplus goods, manage and store government records, handle emergency preparedness, and stockpile strategic supplies for wartime. GSA also regulated the sale of various office supplies to federal agencies and managed some unusual operations, like hemp plantations in South America.

Today, through its two largest offices, the Public Buildings Service (PBS) and the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), and various staff offices, GSA provides workspace to more than one million federal civilian workers, oversees the preservation of 425 historic buildings, facilitates the purchase of high-quality, low-cost goods and services from quality commercial vendors, and influences the management of $500 billion in federal assets.

1950s and 1960s

Soon after being consolidated into a single agency, in the 1950s GSA took on a major overhaul of the White House. “Really it was more than a renovation; it was a rebuilding,” recalled inaugural Administrator Jess Larson.

GSA took on the critical assignment of emergency preparedness and began stockpiling strategic materials to be used in wartime. GSA retained various emergency management functions until they were transferred to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1979.

In 1960, GSA created the Federal Telecommunications System, a governmentwide inter-city telephone system.  In 1962, the Ad Hoc Committee on Federal Office Space recommended a major new building program to address obsolete office buildings in Washington, D.C., resulting in the construction of many of the offices that now line Independence Avenue.

1970s and 1980s

In 1970, the Nixon administration created the Consumer Product Information Coordinating Center.  Now called the Federal Citizen Information Center, FCIC has distributed millions of consumer information publications from its Pueblo, Co, office.

Authorized in 1971, the Federal Buildings Fund became operational in 1974 when GSA issued its first rent bills to federal agencies.  In 1972, GSA established The Automated Data and Telecommunications Service, which evolved into the Office of Information Resources Management ten years later.

In 1984, GSA introduced the federal government to the use of charge cards. Today more than two million GSA-issued cards are used by government employees.  In 1987, GSA opened its first childcare center, and now manages 112 federal childcare facilities for more than 8,000 children across the country.

Meanwhile, GSA also became involved in administrative policy issues. In 1973, GSA created the Office of Federal Management Policy. GSA’s Office of Acquisition Policy centralized procurement policy in 1978. In 1985 GSA began to provide governmentwide policy oversight and guidance for federal real property management as a result of an Executive Order signed by President Ronald Reagan.

By 1995, all of GSA's policy functions had been merged into the Office of Governmentwide Policy, which sets policy in the areas of personal and real property, travel and transportation, information technology, regulatory information and use of federal advisory committees.

1990s

Inspired by the "Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture" written in 1962 by the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, in 1994 GSA's Public Building Service (PBS) introduced the Design Excellence Program to streamline the way GSA selects architects and engineers for major construction projects. The program has resulted in outstanding and enduring examples of federal architecture.

In 1995, GSA formed the Courthouse Management Group to manage the largest courthouse construction project in 50 years. The project has resulted in the renovation or rebuilding of federal courthouses across the nation.

2000s

As the agency transformed itself to enter the 21st century, GSA embraced new technologies, launched electronic government initiatives, and helped develop means of doing government business on the Internet.

Having developed GSA Advantage!™, an online portal for federal employees to purchase services and equipment through GSA in 1990s, in September 2000, GSA launched FirstGov.gov to simplify citizen access to government information and services.

In 2001, GSA assumed responsibility for President Bush’s five E-Gov Initiatives: E-Authentication, E-Travel, Federal Asset Sales, Integrated Aquisition Environment (IAE), and USA Services.

In July 2002, GSA established the Office of Citizen Services and Communications (OCSC) to manage GSA’s citizen-centered activities in a single organization. The Office of Citizen Services enables state and local governments, the public, businesses and the media to interact with the federal government online, via email, telephone, fax or print. 

After having merged the Information Technology Service and the Federal Telecommunication Service into the Federal Technology Service (FTS) in the 1990s, in 2005 GSA consolidated FTS into the Federal Acquisition Service, which was established to help GSA better align the delivery of its services in an ever-changing business world.

In 2007, GSA launched USA.gov, which provides citizens access to more than 180 million pages of online federal, state, local and tribal government information.

Also in 2007, GSA launched GobiernoUSA.gov, which makes federal, state and local government information and services more accessible to those who speak Spanish.

This new use of technology came as GSA was returning to one of its original functions – emergency preparedness.  In November 2006, GSA established the Office of Emergency Response and Recovery to better assist the country during national disasters.

To comply President Bush's National Continuity Policy, in 2007, GSA implemented The National Continuity Policy Implementation Plan (NCPIP) to ensure the timely recovery of the executive branch from any operational interruption and provide a centralized procurement system for all department and agencies.