Let’s make this clear: The price reduction clause is forever.

The General Services Administration couldn't endure giving up the clause that goes hand-in-hand with its Multiple Award Schedules contracts.

Officials say the clause guarantees that companies don’t overcharge the government. It's intended to ensure that the government gets a price as good as, if not better than, a company’s commercial clients for what’s being sold on the schedules. If a company lowers a price for a client, it has to give the government that price or better. Otherwise, it faces the consequences.

The clause causes headaches for companies and customers, yet officials cannot part with it.

“Because the pricing clause is a mechanism GSA uses to ensure the government is getting at least as good a price as a contractor’s private-sector clients, it is not feasible to change the collection process,” GSA officials wrote in their new report on reviewing the agency’s regulations.

The White House-ordered review of regulations had officials from all agencies hunting for ways to revoke some of their rules, which continue to pile up higher and higher on companies each year. Read full article.