General Services Administration: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The General Services Administration is a federal agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of the ever-growing tangle of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. government offices, provides transportation and housing to federal employees, and develops governmentwide cost-minimizing policies, among other management tasks.

The GSA employs around 13,000 federal workers, and has an annual operating budget around $16 billion.

Embraced under the GSA are the Federal Supply Service, the Federal Technology Service, the Public Buildings Service, the Office of Governmentwide Policy, and various Staff Offices, including the Office of Small Business Utilization, the Office of Citizen Services and Communications, and the Office of Civil Rights.

The National Archives was also part of the GSA, until it was made an independent agency in 1985.