Comment on FR Doc # 2011-14650

I was taught that all Federal Supply Schedules were required to be used, if a Contractor can meet the agency's needs. FAR Part 8 is titled required sources, since the sources in order or prioriity are required to be used if they can meet the government;s needs. In addition, at one time, a person at the GSA told me that the reason the word Mandatory was used for Mandatory Federal Supply Schedules, and the word Optional used for Option Use Federal Supply Schedules, was to distinguish between those FSS contracts the GSA delegated authority to other Agencies to administer, and those administered by the GSA, and that the word Optional Use, did not mean optional to use, regardlless if a FSS Contractor could meet the Agencies needs. I feel the Murray Benjamin Case is ambiguos and misleading and perhaps an incorrect decision in whole or part, since it does not state the situatiion as to whether the FSS Contractor could meet the Agencies needs, and may be a correct decision to say Optional Use Schedules are not mandatory, if the FSS Contractor could not meet the Agency's needs, but an incorrect decisiion, if the FSS Contractor was able to meet the Agencies needs. The fact that these circumstances were not stated in the case, makes the decision binding with respect to how the DOD; GSA; and NASA are interpreting it. In addition, the DOD; NASA; and the GSA did not take into account the GAO Case Rulings B-402863 and B-402864, which indicate that Federal Supply Schedule Contracts, including both Mandatory and Optional Use Schedules, are required over commercial sources and hold precedent over the provisions of the Small Business Act. Commercial Sources include GWACs.