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Tearing Down the Wall: Why the Future of Federal Innovation is Hidden Behind a Login Screen
In the high-stakes world of federal procurement, transparency is the supposed gold standard. Yet, if you are a tech startup with a breakthrough AI solution or a cloud disruptor looking to break into the Beltway, you’ll quickly find that the government’s most significant opportunities aren’t actually public. They are locked behind a digital velvet rope. To see what the government is planning to buy, you often need “unofficial channels” or well-placed “friends in industry” to leak documents from restricted platforms.
It is time to dust off the soapbox. This “firewall” around GSA eBuy isn’t just an administrative quirk; it is a systemic barrier to innovation. However, for the first time in years, the stars are aligning. Between a massive regulatory overhaul and a changing of the guard at the highest levels of the acquisition workforce, a movement is surging to make eBuy “read-only” for everyone—and finally let the sunshine in.
The Invisible Barrier: Market Research Behind a Firewall
The GSA eBuy platform currently functions as a walled garden. It restricts access to Requests for Information (RFIs) and draft solicitations to vendors who already hold specific GSA schedules or Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs). By the time a project hits the public-facing SAM.gov, the requirements have often already been baked by a handful of incumbents who had the “insider” access to influence the market research phase.
Take two recent, high-profile examples: the Second Generation IT (2GIT) follow-on contract and the Technology Transformation Services’ (TTS) “Next Generation IT Services” (NEXT) BPA. Both RFIs were kept behind the firewall, visible only to a pre-vetted pool. If you weren’t already on the IT services contract or the STARS III GWAC, you were effectively blind to GSA’s plans for DevSecOps, AI strategy, and fraud detection.
This creates more than just a bottleneck for data; it creates a toxic “perception of rigged bids.” As Nic Chaillan, the former Air Force and Space Force Chief Software Officer, bluntly put it when discussing the 2GIT II RFI, these restricted postings are often viewed as the “usual shenanigans to rig bids.” When market research is conducted in a vacuum, the government limits its own reach and fuels the narrative that the game is fixed for the “Old Guard.”
The “Easy Win”: Policy Over Regulation
The most frustrating part of this secrecy is that it isn’t actually required by law. While some argue that keeping RFIs restricted is a “perk” of being on a GSA schedule, industry leaders like Trevor Wagner, Director of The LAB at the Commerce Department, point out a critical legal distinction: an RFI is a tool for market research, not a formal presolicitation notice or a contract action.
Because RFIs are discretionary, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) doesn’t need to endure a multi-year slog through the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council to change the rules. They can achieve “read-only” transparency tomorrow through a simple policy mandate.
“With a major overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) currently underway, advocates believe now is the perfect time to implement such a change through policy.”
Advocates are calling on GSA Senior Procurement Executive Jeff Koses and OFPP leadership to realize that opening the aperture doesn’t require rewriting the law—it just requires the political will to “tear down the wall.”
The Departure of the “Old Guard”
Why hasn’t this happened sooner? Historically, a systemic culture of secrecy was maintained by an “old guard” of acquisition leaders who used legal concerns—and the risk-averse advice of agency lawyers—as a shield to justify the eBuy firewall. But that guard is changing.
As these legacy leaders retire, the “systemic culture blockers” that once stymied transparency are vanishing. We have seen this before: in 2019, an “Open eBuy” pilot attempted to share statements of work with non-schedule holders, but it quietly died in 2020 because other agencies refused to play ball. Today, however, the resistance is crumbling, replaced by a new generation of practitioners who realize that secrecy is the enemy of speed.
Innovation’s Blind Spot: Why Startups are Shut Out
The government’s stated goal is to “expand the industrial base,” yet the current eBuy system does the exact opposite. By conducting market research behind a firewall, agencies miss out on the very startups and “new tech” companies they claim to want.
GSA’s own NEXT RFI admitted a desire to reach new technology companies for AI and fraud detection but initially limited the conversation to those already on existing GWACs. This is a fundamental contradiction. To truly innovate, agencies must adopt the “OneGov” principles and follow the “cast a wide net” philosophy of SAM.gov. As Wagner noted, signaling that you are open to solutions—even if you eventually use a targeted vehicle—is the only way to ensure the government is getting the best the market has to offer, not just the best that is “already in the system.”
The Rhodes Map: A New Leadership Mandate
The catalyst for this change is sitting on the desk of OFPP Administrator Kevin Rhodes. In a memo dated January 23, 2026, Rhodes signaled a radical shift in how the acquisition workforce should operate. He is moving away from prescriptive requirements and toward outcome-based approaches, emphasizing that “professional discretion” must be restored to the workforce.
Rhodes’ vision for “Speeding Acquisition” and “Increasing Competition” aligns perfectly with the push for an open eBuy. By removing the digital barriers, he is giving practitioners the “top cover” they need to engage with the private sector without fear of falling outside archaic cultural norms.
“I will continue to push for you as practitioners to have the ability to remove barriers, share insights across the stakeholder sphere and engage openly with industry.”
Conclusion: The Transparency Question
Tearing down the eBuy wall is the single most effective “easy win” available to federal leadership today. It would instantly signal to the tech industry that the government is serious about competition and serious about ending the “insider” advantage.
While the existing system offers a modicum of efficiency by limiting engagement to a pre-vetted pool, it does so at the cost of the democratic necessity of transparency. As we move into Phase 2 of the FAR overhaul, we must ask: Are we building a procurement system that rewards the best ideas, or one that merely rewards those who already have the login credentials?
Tags Federal Procurement, GSA eBuy, Transparency, GovTech, Acquisition Reform, OFPP, Market Research, 2GIT, Kevin Rhodes, Jeff Koses, Michael Price