Trump Agencies Move to Centralize Contracts in Bid to Cut Costs

President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to consolidate government-wide purchasing efforts into a single agency, dismissing contract officers as it seeks to make sweeping cuts to federal spending, according to an official familiar with the effort.

The plan to make the General Services Administration a central hub for federal orders of products ranging from construction equipment to paper towels would leverage the government’s purchasing power — now scattered across more than 100 different agencies. The result will likely result in larger contractors gobbling up fewer, but higher-value contracts from the government.

The Trump administration is slated to issue guidelines ...