As promised, GSA has issued a new contract clause that allows contractors to fulfill orders for 60 months after the base contract has expired.  This is one of several changes the agency is making to Schedule contracts in order to make them easier for buyers and contractors.  The change aligns the Schedules with other GWAC’s and MAC’s, including GSA’s own Alliant and OASIS contracts.  One outcome of the new clause is that Blanket Purchase Agreements may now become more attractive.  GSA also announced last week that they are issuing a Class Deviation designed to mitigate the legal risk of incorporating 15 common Commercial Supplier Agreement (CSA) terms and conditions that conflict with or are incompatible with Federal law.  This change essentially broadens the exclusions GSA claims from commercial terms beyond the original scope of software-based Terms of Service agreements that the agency had originally taken exception to several years ago. Contract holders need to be aware of the terms that are essentially being nullified by the deviation.  Terms and conditions that are in standard commercial agreements may be moot if they conflict with federal law.  The intent of these changes is positive, but contractors should, as always, understand how they could impact their specific Schedule contracts.