Sponsors (5)
Stops GSA from awarding new SmartPay contracts that use payment processors which have implemented a merchant category code for gun retailers, while exempting existing contracts.
The bill gives GSA authority to block processors that label certain merchants—reducing federal routing through those merchant categories and protecting employee transactions—while narrowing vendor options, risking higher procurement costs, harming some contractors' revenues, and potentially reducing transaction transparency.
Federal employees' government payment-card transactions will be less likely to be routed through processors that label merchants as 'gun retailers,' reducing indirect federal support for those merchant categories and aligning card use with agency policy preferences.
GSA can exclude payment processors based on their merchant-category policies while preserving existing SmartPay contracts awarded before enactment, allowing policy enforcement without immediate contract disruption.
Government agencies may have fewer eligible vendors for SmartPay contracts, reducing competition and potentially raising procurement costs borne by taxpayers.
Payment processors and commercial vendors that adopt merchant-category codes for 'gun retailers' could be effectively excluded from future GSA SmartPay business, harming contractors' federal-contract revenue streams.
The policy may shift transactions to processors that do not transparently categorize merchants, complicating oversight of card use and making it harder for agencies to detect improper or suspicious expenditures.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To prohibit the Administrator of General Services from awarding contracts for certain commercial payment systems under the SmartPay Program, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025
Prohibits the GSA Administrator from awarding future SmartPay Program contracts to commercial payment systems that use payment processors which have implemented a merchant category code (MCC) for gun retailers. Contracts awarded before the law takes effect are exempted, and no new funding or program authorizations are created.