Authorized AbilityOne Distributors
Federal government acquisition reforms of the last several years have resulted in highly decentralized buying patterns among federal customers. Before these acquisition reforms, most AbilityOne items were sold to three large federal distributors, the General Services Administration (GSA), the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to which federal customers went almost exclusively to obtain AbilityOne products. But in 1988, Acquisition reforms eliminated the mandatory status of GSA, and soon after, made changes to the VA and DLA distribution channels, and gave purchasing power via the issuance of Purchase Cards to hundreds of thousands of federal customers.
Since many federal customers were no longer purchasing common use items from the traditional government distributors, the AbilityOne Program needed to find a way for federal customers to obtain the AbilityOne products they relied on and which Congress determined they should purchase. In 1995, in conjunction with a new GSA "Desktop" Schedule (GSA has recently merged all of its office supply schedules into one Schedule—75IIA—and hardware and janitorial items are provided under GSA Schedule 51 Part V.), the Committee clarified its regulations to allow the authorization of other federal and commercial AbilityOne distributors. Today, this initiative provides federal customers with a wide selection of distributors from which they can fulfill all of their purchasing needs.
Click here for a complete list of Authorized AbilityOne Distributors.
For more information on how to become a AbilityOne Distributor, please visit the Potential Distributors page of this web site.
