SSA’s IT Acquisition Workforce Gaps—and Why Contractors Should Care
The Government Accountability Office’s August 2025 report, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: Actions Needed to Address IT Acquisition Workforce Challenges (GAO-25-107437), offers a precise diagnosis of how the Social Security Administration (SSA) buys and governs technology—and where its capacity is strained. SSA obligated more than $1 billion annually for IT from FY2020–FY2024, with a decline from about $1.9 billion (2020, 2024 dollars) to $1.4 billion (2024). While most new awards were for IT products, the majority of dollars flowed to IT services. For vendors, that mix—and the downtrend—signals both opportunity and tightening scrutiny.
GAO’s central finding is not about contracts but people and information. Within SSA’s Office of Acquisition and Grants (OAG), the data needed to align staffing with workload are incomplete and sometimes unreliable; complexity metrics that drive true effort—e.g., risk, labor mix, oversight intensity—are not systematically captured. Compounding that, SSA’s own assessment identified competency gaps among higher-graded contracting officers, notably in contracting principles, and the agency’s acquisition training plan has not been updated since 2019. In practical terms, vendors should expect uneven procurement execution: longer pre-award cycles, more conservative risk postures, and variable post-award administration. The signal for contractors is to reduce friction—meet buyers with fully specified proposals, transparent pricing structures, and compliance artifacts that lighten the evaluators’ lift.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) faces parallel strains on the program side with contracting officer’s representatives (CORs). Shortages among CORs supporting software acquisitions forced SSA to pause a streamlined software buying process in June 2024—a process the agency credits with substantial historical savings. That pause removes an internal efficiency mechanism, shifting more coordination back to contracting officers and end users and increasing the likelihood of delays or fragmented buys. Contractors should be prepared to help reconstruct that efficiency from the outside: bundling requirements through appropriate vehicles, proposing enterprise license management, and offering governance dashboards that replicate the benefits of centralization.
The workforce issues intersect with a shifting policy environment. In early 2025, hiring freezes and reorganization guidance were followed by Executive Order 14240 directing consolidation of civilian procurements—IT in particular—at the General Services Administration (GSA). SSA has announced plans to reduce its total workforce from roughly 57,000 to 50,000 while also reviewing which buys to transition to GSA vehicles. GAO’s data already show SSA’s heavy reliance on government-wide vehicles for products and a significant share of services through SSA-run indefinite-delivery mechanisms. For contractors, positioning on GSA schedules and GWACs becomes even more strategic, as does readiness to migrate agency-specific work to government-wide channels with minimal disruption.
Why does all of this matter to the federal vendor community? First, execution risk is increasing at the interface between policy and capacity: fewer staff, less complete workload data, and gaps in acquisition competencies can slow awards, complicate modifications, and delay closeout. Second, oversight expectations are likely to rise as SSA implements GAO’s recommendations to formalize workload assessment and refresh training; contractors that bring process discipline—documented EVMS-lite approaches, measurable service levels, and auditable license utilization—will differentiate. Third, as more IT spend consolidates under GSA, contractors should align capture to multi-award vehicles, strengthen reseller/prime teaming bench, and ensure price reasonableness narratives can withstand cross-agency comparisons. Finally, with IT obligations trending down and services comprising most of the dollars, outcomes evidence—reliability, throughput, and measurable savings—will carry more weight than feature lists.
GAO’s recommendations are straightforward: build quality workload analytics for both contracting officers and CORs, and implement a targeted training plan to close identified skill gaps. SSA concurred. For contractors, the actionable takeaway is to anticipate the oscillation—support buyers through the transition with proposals and performance management that assume limited bandwidth, and design deliverables that simplify the government’s oversight burden. In an era of consolidation and staffing austerity, the winning offer will be the one that helps the government do more—with fewer hands.
Disclaimer: This summary is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. While care was taken to reflect the cited GAO report accurately, readers should consult the original source and qualified counsel for specific guidance.